LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap. Copvriott No. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Spiritual Knowing 



OR 



Bible Sunshine 

THE SPIRITUAL GOSPEL OF JESUS 
THE CHRIST 



BY jjV •" 

THEODORE F^'^SEWARD 



AUTHOR OF 

THE SCHOOL OF LIFE," " HEAVEN EVERY DAY, 

" DONT WORRY, OR THE SCIENTIFIC LAW 

OF HAPPINESS," ETC., ETC. 



FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 



1901 



92336 



Library of Congtr^nt 

Two Copies Recejveo 
DEC 22 1900 

SECOND COPY 

Oe(iv««(l to 
ORDER DIVISION 



.-^x 



Z^"^ 



^^k"^ 



According to your faith be it unto you. All 
things are possible to him that believeth. " 

I pray for nothing less than the spiritualization of the 
whole human race. 



I have turned your attention to this sublimely affecting subject of our 
vital connection with God, not for the purpose of awakening temporary 
fervor, but that we may feel the urgent duty of cherishing these convic- 
tions. If this duty becomes a reality to us, we shall be conscious of 
having received a new Principle of Life.— Channing. 



Printed in the United States of America. 



Copyright 1900, by Theodore P. Seward. 
All rights reserved. 






TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Preface v 

Introduction ix 

Chapter I — God and Man in the Bible 1 

Chapter II— What Think Ye of Christ? 11 

Chapter III— "Spiritual Knowing." 19 

Chapter IV— Spiritual Psychology. The People's Gospel 27 

Chapter V— Dominion Through Love 34 

Chapter VI— The Process of Resurrection 41 

Chapter VII— Now 47 

Chapter VIII— Our Divine Partnership 51 

Chapter IX— The Power of Thought 59 

Chapter X— Importunity 64 

Chapter XI— Life and Health in the Bible 09 

Chapter XII— The New Factor in Race Development. 

Woman 76 

Chapter XIII— As a Little Child 79 

Chapter XIV— God's World, but Not God's Kind of a 

World. Appearance Versus Reality 83 

Chapter XV— God's Law versus Human Laws 87 

Chapter XVI— Fear Hath Torment 92 

Chapter XVII— Our Divine Heredity 95 

Chapter XVIII— Did Jesus Teach an Individual Gospel or 

a Social Gospel? 98 



iv CONTENTS. 

Chapter XIX— The Heavenly Language 107 

Chapter XX— The Art of Letting Go 110 

Chapter XXI— Contagious Greetings 114 

Chapter XXII— The New Evangelism 116 

Chapter XXIII— Obedience, the Chief of Christian Graces... 119 

Chapter XXIV— A Catechism of Spiritual Christianity 129 

Appendix— How the Bible Grew 147 

POEMS. 

Day by Day the Manna Fell 50 

Restless Heart, Don't Worry So 26 

Our Resurrection 46 

The 91st Psalm 144 

Benediction of Divine Love 143 



PREFACE. 

The American people are unconsciously arraying 
themselves on one or the other side of a sharp dividing 
line. The standard or ideal of life on the one side is 
vigor, energy, activity, dominion, conquering circum- 
stances by the strong right arm. It has recently coined 
a new phrase to express its ideal. It calls upon the 
youth of the land to follow " the strenuous hfe," which is 
an appeal for the strongest possible exercise of the 
human will. Its standard of success is material pros- 
perity. 

The ideal of the other side is exactly the opposite of 
this. It sees in the history of mankind a perpetual fail- 
ure of the human will to give happiness, comfort, peace 
or even permanent prosperity. It sees that not only the 
teachings of the world's Saviour, the Man of GaHlee, but 
the analogies of science show that the secret of happiness 
lies in surrendering the finite human will to the Supreme 
Eternal Will, and that true success is not to be gained by 
a strenuous materialistic life, but by a spiritual life. 

An essential element of this movement is its larger and 
profounder interpretation of the word spiritual. Its fol- 
lowers believe that the spiritual universe and not the 
material is the basis of rational thinking; that, in truth, 
the spiritual or mental is the only real and permanent 



vi PREFACE. 

entity. They accept the statement of philosophy which 
is voiced in the words of Professor Borden P. Bowne 
of Boston University: '' A thought-world is the only 
knowable world; a thought^world is the only real 
world." 

As materialism has its watchword in the phrase " the 
strenuous life," so the other movement expresses its 
fundamental thought in the process described as 
" spiritual knowing." It is a moderate estimate that 
there are not less than two million people in America 
who accept that term as descriptive of their thought and 
purpose. 

The strenuous life is the law of material evolution. 
It results in " the survival of the fittest." Spiritual 
knowing is a process of moral and spiritual development. 
Its effect is to fit the human race to survive. It is a 
movement of the people and not of the churches. But it 
belongs in the churches, and will in time be assimilated 
by them. It is simply the spiritual gospel of Jesus the 
Christ, which the people are rediscovering and applying. 

It should be noted that the new, and what may be 
called the scientific conception of the spiritual life, does 
not belong to the old order of pietism or quietism. It 
is, rather, a strenuous life in a higher sense of that 
term, the outcome of right thinking. In the recog- 
nition of his unity with God man gains his true and only 
potentiality. The life of Abraham Lincoln serves as an 
illustration. It was a strenuous life, yet beneath its 
assiduous effort and persistent purpose there was a 
double source of power — trust in a divine guidance, and 
an ideal of freedom for ail and not for a favored few. 



PREFACE. vii 

The choice which every citizen of this free land is 
called to make is between a materialistic and a spiritual 
ideal. Shall we obey the human and selfish will, or the 
Divine Will of Love? We must not only make the 
choice for ourselves, but we must decide which standard 
shall be held before the children and youth of America 
in the homes, the schools, the universities and the 
churches. 

It is not merely a religious choice. It affects educa- 
tion and politics as truly as it concerns the so-called 
religious life. In fact, the old division between the 
sacred and the secular no longer exists. If our educa- 
tional and political systems are not religious, they must 
become so, or be dropped like the corn-husks of autumn. 
They have served their purpose, and must give way to 
something more vital. It is not piety, but righteousness 
that exalteth a nation. Righteousness is the only true 
piety. Love is a universal solvent. No problem of 
individual or social life can be wrought to a just con- 
clusion without it. 

THEODORE F. SEWARD, 

iNew York City. 
December, 1900. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The phrase '' spiritual knowing " is the keynote of 
thought and life in the twentieth century. It indicates 
the coming of a new era when man is to enjoy 

"The freer step, the fuller breath. 

The wide horizon's grander view; 
The sense of life that knows no death, 
The life that maketh all things new." 

Until the present time matter has been regarded as the 
one substantial reality whose appeal to consciousness 
was unimpeachable, the one element concerning which 
knowledge was supposed to be definite, accurate and 
satisfactory. Spirit was thought of as something unreal, 
df whose qualities and powers little could be known. Its 
very existence was doubted by many. 

Opinioi^ on this subject is now completely reversed. 
Spirit is recognized as the real and substantial, and mat- 
ter as the unknowable. Intuition is acknowledged to be 
a surer guide than intellect; soul perception or spiritual 
perception a more accurate source of knowledge than 
sense-perception. Instead of thinking ourselves as 
bodies with spirits somewhere inside of us, we now real- 
ize that our true being is spiritual, and the physical body 
is an evanescent and vanishing element. 

The change of thought from the standpoint of matter 



X INTRODUCTION. 

to the standpoint of spirit is introducing a new philoso- 
phy, and a new standard both in the ways of thinking 
and of living. It reverses the relationship of the natural 
and the supernatural. Heretofore the material world 
has been the nearest to men's thoughts, and it has been 
called natural, while all that belongs to the spiritual 
realm has been regarded as supernatural. Reversing 
this process and treating the spiritual as the natural 
changes confusion of thought to simplicity, and leads to 
a wonderful discovery, namely, that, this is exactly what 
Jesus of Nazareth tried to do for the human race nine- 
teen centuries ago. He taught the truth that the inner 
or spiritual world is the real world — the realm of causa- 
tion. "The kingdom of God is within you. Seek first 
the realities of this inner kingdom, and the things of the 
external world will be added unto you." 

This declaration confirms the statement in Genesis 
that man is made in the image of God, and that he is 
given dominion over all the earth. It also supplies a key 
by which the Bible may be read as a revelation of pure 
love, and not as a mixture of love and vengeance; in 
other words, it shows the book to be a fountain of pure 
sunshine. 

Very far from a book of sunshine has the Bible hereto- 
fore appeared to most of its readers. The picture of 
Mount Sinai with its " clouds and thick darkness " filled 
their minds so exclusively for centuries that when the 
Messiah came to reveal God's light in its fulness, the 
human race was in no condition to receive it. " The 
light shineth in darkness, but the darkness compre- 



INTRODUCTION, xi 

hended it not." Individuals received the message for 
several centuries, and their lives were blessed and trans- 
formed by it. But a spirit of formalism and materialism 
began to displace the simple faith of the early disciples, 
and once more the world gave more heed to the thunder- 
ings df Sinai than to the tender voice of love, and the 
Heavenly Father revealed by Jesus Christ was sup- 
planted in human thought by the stern Judge of 
scholastic theology. The two vital errors of man-made 
theological systems which have robbed the Bible of 
much of its sunshine are (i) a degraded view of man as a 
worm of the dust, and (2) postponing the consequences 
of right and wrong living, to a heaven and hell beyond 
the grave. 

The worm-of-the-dust idea of man belongs tO' the 
limited condition of human thought when it was sup- 
posed that God could and did separate Himself from the 
objects of His creation, as one can build a complicated 
machine and set it in motion. It was also a time when 
all the thinking was done from the standpoint of the 
material. 

To apply the law of spiritual knowing to the varied 
experiences of life, and to the interpretation of the 
Sacred Scriptures, is the purpose of the present volume. 



CHAPTER I. 
GOD AND MAN IN THE BIBLE. 

Beneath the various forms of scriptural writings, 
whether olf history, prophecy, poetry, gospel narrative or 
parable, one purpose is never lost sight of, namely, the 
purpose of revealing God and man, and showing their 
mutual relation — of God to man, and man to his fellow 
man. The names given to the Creator in different parts 
of the Old Testament are themselves revelations of differ- 
ent phases of Divinity. The Hebrew names for the 
Supreme Being have been called '' lenses through which 
to see the character of God." It is interesting and in- 
structive to observe the progressive order of the divine 
titles. 

The first name that occurs is " E^ohim,*' meaning 
" Mighty One," " the All-Powerful." It is in the plural 
form, which is the Hebrew method of expressing the idea 
of majesty and power. 

The second Hebrew word for God is "Jehovah- 
Elohim," which is defined in Exodus as " I am that I 
am," "the Ever-Existing One." This name marks a 
new departure in revelation. Man, a sinner, finds God- 
Jehovah his Redeemer. By this name God had not 
been known (Ex. 6: 3). All later names are unfoldings 
of this name as the redemptive title of God. 

The third name is " El Shaddai," in which God reveals 



2 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

himself to Abraham as working above nature. Abraham 
had passed nature's limit in begetting children, but God 
shows him that He is not limited to nature. 

The fourth name is " Jehovah-Jireh," God as a pro- 
vider. The revelation of God's care in this name should 
lift us above all anxiety. Christ Jesus emphasizes this in 
Luke 1 2th, where he declares that faithfulness in spiritual 
things will bring material blessings. 

The fifth name is '' Jehovah Nissi," " The Lord our 
banner" — indicating protection. The Pslamist says: 
" His banner over us is love." His protection is abso- 
lute if we will but trust it. 

The sixth name is " Jehovah Raphai," " The Lord our 
Healer." It is strange how this Truth has been lost sight 
of, although Jesus' life was a constant exemplification of 
it. This subject will be considered in a separate chapter. 

The seventh name is "J^^o^ah Tsidkenu," "The Lord 
our Righteousness " — a name which meets and touches 
man in his infirmities and sins. 

The eighth name is "Jehovah Shammah," "God 
everywhere to be recognized." How often we have oc- 
casion to say " God was in this place and I knew it not." 

The ninth name is " Jehovah Shalom," " The Lord our 
Peace." Peace is the consummation and fruition of all 
human desires. 

One other name, " Jehovah-Rohi," " the Lord our 
Shepherd," gathers up and includes the meaning of all 
the rest. 

What more do we need to give us encouragement and 



GOD AND MAN IN THE BIBLE. 5 

strength than the character of our God as revealed by 
the foregoing names?* 

But the change of thought from the standpoint of mat- 
ter to the standpoint of Spirit necessitates a new and 
larger conception of God than has thus far been generally 
held. The conception of the Supreme Being has re- 
sulted from a process somewhat similar to the enlarge- 
ment of a photograph. Man has been taken as the type 
or norm, and the attempt has been made to expand the 
pattern from the finite to the Infinite. This has led to 
what is called the anthropomorphic or giant-man con- 
ception of God. 

In the vastly extended knowledge of the present day 
this idea of taking mortal man as a type or pattern of the 
immortal God, the Supreme and Self-existing Jehovah, is 
clearly seen to be unphilosophical and inadmissible. 
The method must be reversed. To gain a true concep- 
tion we must recognize that God, Love, is an infinite and 
all-pervading Principle. He is not a God of Love, a 
Being who can both love and hate. He is Love, and in 
this Love we. His children, " live and move and have our 
being." There is no room for darkness in this concep- 
tion. 

But in considering this new standard of thought our 
first feeling is a fear that we are losing our sense of God 
as a personal being — the Father whO' loves and pities His 
children. It is a difficult subject to treat, as it is neces- 



* For this suggestion of the progressive order of the divine 
titles I am indebted to the Rev. W. W. Pratt, pastor of the 
First Baptist Church of Passaic, N. J. 



4 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

sary to employ finite terms for the expression of infinite 
ideas. 

God is Personal Being. Yes, we know this because 
we are made in his image and likeness. But what do we 
know concerning the nature and modes of expression of 
an infinite Personality? Our forefathers were satisfied 
with a conception of personality which could not, so to 
speak, be expanded to infinitude. It is impossible to 
start with man as the initial conception and enlarge it to 
a true idea of the Infinite. In the attempt to do this, the 
mind is inevitably held to the idea of corporeality. Even 
if God is described as being .without body, parts or pas- 
sions," the corporeal concept still remains to confuse the 
thought. 

The mode of thinking must be changed. God must 
be thought of as both Infinite PersonaHty and Infinite 
Principle. Which shall come first, and be to some extent 
the governing idea? The " personal " thought has pre- 
vailed entirely in the past, and we see its limitations and 
disadvantages. It is impossible to dissociate it en- 
tirely from human weaknesses and defects. Moreover, a 
personal God — in our limited conception of it — carries 
with it almost unavoidably the counterpart of a personal 
devil. Some one has said " Human nature takes some- 
thing from good and calls it God, and adds something 
to evil and calls it devil." Probably all the theologians 
who feel it necessary to defend their notion of the per- 
sonality of God by rejecting the idea of Infinite Princi- 
ple, are no less strenuous in defending the personality of 
Satan. 



GOD AND MAN IN THE BIBLE. 5 

Against all this the lay mind is beginning to revolt. 
God is Love. Then where can He be found as far as 
each individual is concerned except in our own con- 
sciousness? 

'* I searched for God with heart-throbs of despair, 
'Neath ocean's bed, above the vaulted sky; 
Al last I searched myself, my inmost I, 
And found Him there." 

There is little danger that the personality of God will 
ever be lost sight of, for the heart of man demands it. 
His whole being cries out for it. In that respect we are 
all Jacobs in saying, " I will not let thee go except thou 
bless me." But the practical question is, as already 
stated, which is the best underlying thought to hold con- 
cerning the Supreme Being? Swedenborg says: "In 
heaven, by loving the Lord is not understood to love Him 
as to His person, but to love the goodness which pro- 
ceeds from Him." Our present thought of personality 
is associated with the Giant Being who has been rele- 
gated to the skies by formulated theology. We have 
been taught to look up in the sky to find God. The 
idea of an Infinite Principle as Love turns the expecta- 
tion within. No one would dream of looking up intO' the 
sky for Infinite Principle. It also places the mind in a 
totally different attitude toward the question of evil. The 
thought of an Infinite Principle as Love and Goodness is 
comprehensible and uplifting. The thought of an Infin- 
ite Principle of Hate and Evil is inconceivable. The 
mind is thus led to an appreciation of the vital, essential 
.truth that Love is positive, and evil is negative. Love 



6 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

is the Creative Force, but evil has no self-derived power; 
it can only have the influence over us which we permit it 
to have. '' The evil is null, is naught, is silence imply- 
ing sound." 

Accepting the idea of a Divine Personality and reject- 
ing that of Infinite Principle is equivalent to accepting 
the sun and rejecting the sunshine. Taking the sun as a 
type or figure to represent the Supreme Being helps to 
makes the subject clear. God as Infinite Principle is 
representedii by the orb. All our knowledge of 
the sun is gained by studying the light and heat that it 
gives forth, and all the benefit we derive from the sun is 
gained from the use we make of this light and heat. So 
all our knowledge of God must be dbtained by studying 
the Love and Truth which emanate from Him, and all 
the benefit we derive is from the use we make of this 
Love and Truth. Therefore the introduction of the 
term Infinite Principle should be welcomed as a means 
of turning attention from the abstract and unknowable 
to the concrete and practical. 

Emphasizing unduly the personality of God, in con- 
nection with the anthropomorphic idea, has obscured 
the truth of His being as including both the masculine 
and feminine qualities. " God created man in His own 
image; in the image of God created He him; male and 
female created He them.'' Scholastic theology lost sight 
of that truth and assumed the Divine Creator to be a 
man. Humanity has always longed for the feminine ele- 
ment in its thought of God, and has tried in many ways 
to supply it. It is this craving which led the Roman 



GOD AND MAN IN THE BIBLE. 7 

Catholic Church to the worship of Mary. Now the 
weary-hearted children of men are beginning to think 
and speak of " our Father-Mother God," and they are 
supported in this thought by reason as well as by revela- 
tion. Edwin Markham has written a poem entitled " A 
Song to the Divine Mother." Four of its seventeen 
stanzas are here quoted : 

" Come, Mighty Mother, from the bright abode. 

Lift the low heavens, and hush the earth again; 
Come when the moon throws down a road 
Across the sea — come back to weary men. 

* * « 

" Come down, O Mother, to the helpless land. 

That we may frame our Freedom into Pate, 

Come down, and on the throne of nations stand, 

That we may build Thy beauty in the State. 

* * 

" Come shining in upon our daily road, 

Uphold the hero heart, and light the mind; 
Quicken the strong to lift the People's load, 
And bring back buried justice to mankind. 

* * « 

" Some day our homeless cries will draw Thee down. 

And the old brightness on the ways of men 
Will send a hush upon the jangling town. 
And broken hearts will learn to love again." 

One of the vital errors of the past has been the beHef 
that God could not be known and understood. This in 
the face of Jesus' specific statement that a knowledge of 
God is an essential element of eternal life. "This is life 
eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God; 
and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." That is, know 
Jesus Christ as the revealer of the only true God. 

The error arose from the condition of the race in the 



8 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

former centuries when intellect was the standard and 
" knowing " was supposed to be a process of intellectual 
analysis. By that process God can not be known. He 
is Love and can only be comprehended through the logic 
of the heart. 

The. statement has been previously made (in the Intro- 
duction) that '' the change of thought from the stand- 
point of matter to the standpoint of spirit is introducing 
into the world a new philosophy, and a new standard, 
both in the ways of thinking and of living." In. fact, it 
must result in an absolute revolution and transformation 
of human methods in individual and social life. It 
creates a philosophy which is based upon a rational con- 
ception of God. All Christians, however they may differ 
on secondary questions, will accept the following state- 
ments : 

1. God is Infinite. 

2. God is Spirit. 

3. God is Life, Truth and Love expressed and re- 
flected in Wisdom, Goodness, Beauty and Harmony. 

Now, in the light of the highest reason, what deduc- 
tions must be drawn from these statements? 

1. Since God is infinite, there can be nothing in the 
universe but God manifested in every variety of expres- 
sion. 

2. Since God is Spirit, there can be nothing in the 
universe but Spirit. All that appears otherwise is not a 
reality, but a seeming. 

3. Since God is Love, and infinite, there cannot be 
anything in the universe but Love in its various manifes- 



GOD AND MAN IN THE BIBLE. p 

tations of Life, Truth, Wisdom, Goodness, Beauty, 
Harmony. 

Therefore the real universe must be a spiritual uni- 
verse, and this universe must include Man as a spiritual 
expression of God. 

The intellect, which is the interpreter of sense-percep- 
tion, finds it hard to accept these truths, but the heart 
accepts them readily and joyfully, and the theology that 
belongs to the truths is that which Jesus said must be 
received in the spirit of a little child. 

Let no one think that understanding God as Infinite 
Principle as well as Infinite Personality will put Him 
away from us and make it harder to realize His nearness 
and His fatherly care. It has exactly the opposite effect. 
Every Christian knows how difficult it is to bring the 
" Supreme Ruler " down out of the sky and sO' under- 
stand His infinite Love as to rest upon it, with a perfectly 
calm and peaceful trust. In fact, it is impossible. Even 
the ministers of the Gospel who preach self-surrender and 
perfect trust do not enjoy any deeper experience of 
peace than their unsatisfied congregations. I know of a 
devoted and consecrated preacher who sO' longed for 
" the peace which passeth all understanding " that during 
the course of his life he read the Bible through seven 
times on his knees, in addition to all his other study of 
the book. Yet he " died without the sight.'* 

In fact, it is the laity rather than the clergy who are 
working out the problems of faith and life from the 
spiritual standpoint. This is but natural, inasmuch as 
their minds are comparatively free from the limitations 
of formulated theology. 



10 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

There is a large and rapidly increasing host of people 
who believe that they have found the key tO' life, truth, 
happiness and heaven by accepting the teachings of Jesus 
Christ naturally rather than theologically or ecclesiasti- 
cally. They beheve that the " Pearl of Great Price " lies 
in his Principle of Eternal Life as being a present devel- 
opment of the " kingdom within," which Principle may 
be summarized as follows: 

There is no reality but Spirit and no life but Love. 

Love and not death is the gateway to the Spiritual Uni- 
verse. 

Only through love of the Good can man enjoy his naturaj 
dominion and gain a mastery of material conditions. 

This is a religion of the heart and not of the head, and 
must be understood through the process of " spiritual 
knowing." 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST f'' ii 



CHAPTER II. 
" WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? " 

This question of the Master is still the perplexity of 
Christendom. Ecclesiastic, scholastic and dialectic 
methods of thought have thrown no light upon it; they 
have only added to the hopeless confusion of ideas. 
Yet Jesus said that the truth he taught must be received 
in the spirit of a little child. Can this profound theme 
be presented in such a way that a child's mind can com- 
prehend it? 

The confusion of thought has arisen from the error of 
looking upon Christ as one with the personality of the 
human Jesus. Therefore in seeking simpHcity the first 
thing to be done is to separate the two- in our thought. 

Whatever view we hold must be consistent with his 
own affirmation " The Lord our God is one God." To 
wors'hip Jesus as God is to put ourselves in opposition to 
his own teaching " The Father is greater than I," and 
much more to the same effect. Dr. George D. Herron 
says " At all times Jesus strenuously denied having any 
special privilege in God. He came to destroy the gods 
of special privilege. Above all things he sought to 
keep men from thinking of him apart from the common 
life — and putting him in some special category of his 
own. That would annul the meaning and value of his 
coming, for he came to bring the common life of man 
to light." 



12 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

Yet his individuality was in some way different from 
ours. He was " Jesus the Christ." We do not read of 
" John the Christ," or " Paul the Christ." In what did 
the difference consist? 

The only rational solution of the problem is tO' be 
found in the truth that " the spiritual is the only real" — 
that man is spiritual and not material. 

By belief in a power apart from God the human race 
has brought itself into a state of illusion — of false con- 
sciousness. Indulgence in selfishness and sin has shut 
out the true consciousness of God and the spiritual uni- 
verse. The world that is discerned by the material 
senses is an unreal world; all its objects are inversions — 
counterfeits of the realities of the actual universe, the 
spiritual universe. To this unreal world belong experi- 
ences which cannot possibly exist in the spiritual uni- 
verse — evil, sorrow, hate, disappointment, sickness; the 
whole catalogue of human miseries ending in death. 

How can a race in such a condition as this be re- 
deemed and brought out its illusions? Clearly it can 
only be done by one who represents eternal Truth, 
eternal Life and eternal Love, and who yet is in sym- 
pathy with the deluded people; one who can be 
" touched with the feeling of all their infirmities." Such 
a one was Jesus the Christ. Jesus was born of the 
human Mary. But the Christ in him was born of God. 
Hence he could say on one side, " The Father is greater 
than I," and on the other " Before Abraham was I am." 
He was the archetypal man. The Christ-thought is the 
image and likeness of God. Jesus revealed to the world 



'WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST f " ij 

the nature of Christ or the Christ-spirit, and taught that 
the Christ-spirit is the true Hfe of man. Jesus the Christ 
was the mediator between God and man; as St. Paul 
says, *' There is one God, and one mediator between God 
and men, the man Christ Jesus." Jesus could perform 
this office because he included the two natures. " In 
him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," 
says the Apostle Paul, and immediately adds, " And ye 
are complete in him which is the head of all principality 
and power." All that he had in his present realization 
we have potentially. Hence our way is made plain; 
" As ye have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye 
in him." How shall we walk in him? " If ye then be 
risen with Christ seek those things which are above, 
where Christ (not Jesus, or Christ Jesus) sitteth on the 
right hand of God." The " right hand of God " is next 
in Divine order, as sonship, to God. 

How clear all this becomes when we have the key in 
our thought — namely, that man is a spiritual being who 
only needs to realize his own true nature. The last quo- 
tation above shows the mistake of supposing that we can 
only " depart and be with Christ " by dying. "If ye 
then be risen with Christ." If ye be risen now; not when 
you have risen at some future time. If we have risen 
and are striving to rise above the false material con- 
sciousness into the true consciousness of Spirit, then as 
Paul further says, '' ye are dead, and your life is hid with 
Christ in God." And in one short sentence he indicates 
the rule of the new life. " Set your affection on things 
above, and not on things on the earth." How com- 



14 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

pletely this reflects the teaching of Christ Jesus. " Seek 
first the inner spiritual kingdom of God." 

All this truth with reference to Jesus Christ is an 
expression of spiritual psychology, and should be read 
in connection with the chapter on that subject. Mate- 
rialism is death. Spirituality is life. Adam is a type of 
error, or all that belongs to the false materiality. Christ 
is the reality of Truth — of all that belongs to the true 
spiritual life. Hence we read '' As in Adam (error) all 
die, so in Christ (Truth) shall all be made alive." Mate- 
rialism is death to the spirit, and material existence (the 
false material consciousness) is a dream from which all 
must sooner or later awake. Hence we read again: 
" Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first 
fruits of them that slept!' Elsewhere Paul says : " It is 
high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation 
nearer than when we believed." This he says in con- 
nection with his remarkable assertion " Love is the ful- 
filling of the law." When we understand this vital 
Truth, our salvation or awakening is much nearer than 
when we only hold vague beliefs about Truth. 

In the light of these interpretations we see the basis 
of Jesus^ statements concerning man's equality with 
himself. 

" Verily, verily, I say unto' you, he that believeth on 
me, the works that I do shall he also do, and greater 
works than these shall he do, because I go unto the 
Father." John 14: 12. This promise was not given only 
to the disciples of Jesus' time, but to the disciples of all 
time. Why did the Master say that his followers should 



'WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?'' i^ 

do greater works than he did himself? For two rea- 
sons (i) He knew what the future history was to be. 
He foresaw the vast expansion of the human or mortal 
mind as we are witnessing it now, with its marvelous in- 
ventions, its labor-saving machines, its annihilations of 
time and space. He saw that greater works would be 
needed to meet the enlarging comprehension of the race. 
(2) Jesus also knew that after his withdrawal the dis- 
ciples would be more influenced by the Christ-spirit and 
less by his human personality. Yet even since his time 
the mistake has still been made of looking more to the 
human Jesus than to the Christ-spirit. This mistake has 
led to unlimited persecutions, cruelty and bloodshed 
which would have been avoided if his professed follow- 
ers had given heed to the Principle he laid down. '' My 
doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If any man 
will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether 
it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." This was 
the human Jesus testifying to the Christ-thought, and 
teaching that all who do God's will shall understand 
that Eternal Truth and the Creative Power tha/t the 
Christ-thought represents. '' The same was in the be- 
ginning with God. All things were made by Him, and 
without Him was not anything made thajt was made." 

Failing to distinguish between the human Jesus and 
the eternal Christ has led to the erroneous ideas respect- 
ing the " second coming." Christ never went away. 
" Lo, I am with you always, even unjto the end of the 
world." Jesus, having demonstrated his perfect mas- 
tery of material conditions and conquered evil in every 



i6 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

form of sin, disease and death, rose above the material 
plane. He entered the spiritual kingdom whose laws 
he came to reveal, and ever sitteth at the right hand of 
God. The " right hand " signifies the place of power, as 
he said '' All power is given unto me in heaven and 
earth." 

As the " ascension " was a disappearance from the 
human or material consciousness, so is the "second com- 
ing " a revelation of the eternal Christ to the spiritual 
consciousness.* 

The fact should be clearly recognized that the Christ 
that is in the consciousness of Christendom to-day is not the 
real Christ', it is a theological Christ, a creation of contro- 
versy. The demand of this age is for a restoration of 
the Christ of the New Testament. Even many Jews are 
echoing this call. A Jewish layman, Mr. Louis R. 
Ehrich, speaks thus in a magazine article: " A cry is 
heard for a restored Christ; for the lovely, sweetly rea- 
sonable, all loving, faith-inspiring, divine man, in place of 
the incomprehensible, doubt-compelling human God. 
Moses was the law-giver; Jesus the love-giver. Here 
is the difference between the Old and the New Testa- 



* One of the many results of the scholastic and mechanical 

systems of scriptural interpretation is seen in the popular mis- 
understand of John 5: 39, which has been read as if it taught 
that eternal life is to be found in the Bible itself, as if Christ 
said " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye have eternal life." 
What is the true rendering? " Ye search the Scriptures be- 
cause ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are 
they which testify of me; and ye will not come unto me that 
ye may have life." ^ 



'WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST f " i; 

ment — ^the heart of Jesus, a heart overflowing with an 
ocean of love." 

The restoration of Christ means the restitution ,to 
God of the love, homage and intelligent trust which be- 
long to Him. Christ Jesus came to point men tO' God, 
the everlasting Father, and to show them their inalien- 
able kinship with Him. Human theories and traditions 
have done nearly all that could be done to defeat his pur- 
pose by leading men to transfer their worship from the 
Father to the Son. 

The question may be asked, " Do you mean to say that 
a little child can comprehend the ideas that are expressed 
in this chapter? Yes. Not in their fullness, of course. 
But the Truth can be perfectly adapted to the child's 
mind. It can be taught that Jesus was born a babe and 
grew up a little child like itself, but that he was full of 
Love, that there was no room in his heart for evil of any 
kind; that he came to teach Love to all little children 
and to help them to grow in Love and kindness and 
goodness till they should become like him; that he 
came to tell us of the Father in heaven who is all Love, 
and who will come with the power of Love into all hearts 
that desire Him. A child brought up strictly under 
such teaching would confound the exponents of dogmatic 
theology exactly as Jesus did the doctors at Jerusalem 
when he was twelve years of age. A remarkable sug- 
gestion of this truth is given by Marie Corelli in her 
book, " The Master Christian." A boy of that age is 
represented as so reflecting the Christ-spirit that church 
dignitaries are silent when he speaks, and a healing 
power accompanies him wherever he goes. 



i8 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

In families where the law of spiritual knowing is ac- 
cepted and made the guiding principle of life, the little 
children receive the teaching readily and apply it in ways 
that are sometimes almost startling. This higher grace 
of the children lies in their simplicity of thought and 
embodiment of trust, and in their freedom from the self- 
consciousness which obscures the spiritual vision of the 
adult mind. 

The child's way of thinking indicates for each indi- 
vidual the answer tO' the question, " What think ye of 
Christ?" Like a little child, we will think first of the 
human Jesus, who had our nature, who passed through 
our experiences, and learned the need of every heart. 
We will think of him as one who " learned obedience 
through the things which he suffered," exactly as we are 
compelled to do. That he conquered where we often 
fail will not lift him above the range of our sympathy 
and need. It will rather give us boundless comfort. It 
will give us courage to persevere, because we have 
within us the same divine Life that he had. As we rise 
in mastery we will see him ever before us; always the 
human friend we need and always demonstrating the 
power and dominion which belong to us. 



SPIRITUAL KNOWING. ip 



CHAPTER III. 
SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

Heretofore the word knowledge has been chiefly- 
associated with the intellect and its methods. The mate- 
rial senses have been supposed to afford the basis of all 
certain and unquestionable knowledge. But this is now 
rapidly changing. It is found that sense-perception 
misleads and betrays us in a thousand ways, and it never 
leads to what all mankind are seeking, namely, happiness 
and peace. Even from what is called the scientific stand- 
point this truth is beginning to be recognized. The 
word science is coming to have a higher and deeper 
meaning than intellectual processes can give it. The 
meaning of the word science is " to know." Science is 
" knowing." Then the truest science must be that 
which leads to the best and most useful knowledge. 
Who will not admit that the best and most useful knowl- 
edge is a knowledge of God, the Creator, the Heavenly 
Father, the Supreme Mind, the Infinite Source of all 
things? Even from the intellectual standpoint it is now 
generally conceded to be scientific to beHeve in immor- 
tality, and unscientific to doubt it. It is scientific to 
know (and not merely believe) that the universe and 
man, created by Spirit, must be spiritual and not mate- 
rial. This higher consciousness is what is meant by 
" spiritual knowing," and it is by this process that the 
human race will be regenerated. 



20 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

It was to this kind of " knowing" that Jesus invariably 
appealed. His work and teachings can only be fully 
understood by realizing that all his words and acts are 
to be judged from the standpoint of the purely spiritual. 
He said " To this end have I been born, and to this end 
am I come into the world, that I should bear witness 
unto the truth." Truth is spiritual. The material world 
is not a realm of Truth. It is a realm of illusion. The 
physical senses are not to be depended upon. Their 
testimony is not reliable. Let a dozen different persons 
witness the same event, and undertake to describe it, 
and there will be as many different and varying accounts 
as there are witnesses. 

Jesus ignored all the so-called laws of materiality. He 
walked on the waves. In feeding the multitudes it made 
no difference whether the original supply was twO' loaves 
or five. The people had abundance and to spare. 
Water was changed to wine in response to his silent 
command. In his presence the diseases which belong 
to the realm of matter disappeared. And for all this he 
announced the law in a single brief sentence. The 
Kingdom of God is within you; that is, within your con- 
sciousness. This truth, when accepted, releases man 
from his bondage to materiality, and bestows upon him 
" the free life of Spirit." " Ye shall know the Truth, and 
the Truth shall make you free." 

It was not only on account of the unspiritual condition 
of the race at the beginning of the Christian era that this 
Truth was not more fully received. There was no scien- 
tific knowledge to support and confirm it. Such teach- 



SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 21 

ing could only be accepted by faith in apparent contra- 
diction to reason. Man's conception of the universe was 
chaotic at that time. Nineteen centuries of painful 
growth have been required to enable mankind to realize 
that this chaos is a cosmos — an orderly universe gov- 
erened throughout by orderly laws. The hour has now 
arrived for understanding that God's cosmos is spiritual 
and not material, and that man's true home is not in the 
realm of matter, but in the realm of Spirit. 

Spiritual knowing is knowing God, " whom to know 
aright is life eternal." Is life eternal now, and not merely 
in a world beyond the grave. And what is It to know 
God aright? It is to know that He is Spirit, that He is 
Infinite and that He is Life, Truth, Love, reflected in 
Wisdom, Goodness, Beauty, Harmony. Part of the pro- 
cess of knowing God aright is knowing our relation to 
Him. We must know that, however we may seem to 
be separated from Him — a seeming which is produced 
by our own selfishness and wilfulness — ^we are not, and 
cannot possibly be cut off from Him in the slightest de- 
gree or for a single instant. " In Him we live and move 
and have our being." " One God and Father of all who 
is above all and through all and in you all," Eph., 4: 6. 
" For of Him and through Him and to Him are all 
things." Rom. 11: 36. "All my springs are in Thee." 
Ps. 87: 7. 

One characteristic of this new spiritual dispensation is 
a new use of words. The keyword of the former dis- 
pensation was " belief." The keyword of the present is 
^' know." " Believing " belongs to the idea of an " ab- 



22 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

sentee God." " Knowing " belongs to the truth of an 
immanent or indwelling God who is omnipotent, omni- 
present and omni-active Being. 

Paul the theologian has much to say about believing. 
The word is constantly on his pen. John, the seer, the 
man of intuition, the most spiritual of the disciples 
always speaks of " knowing " rather than of " believing." 
" Hereby know we that we are in Him." " We know 
that we have passed from death untO' life." " Hereby we 
know that we are of the truth." " Hereby we know that 
He abideth in us." " We know that we are of God." 
And so on throughout his epistles. 

It should be stated with regard to the word " believe " 
that when used in the New Testament the original Greek 
word has a stronger meaning than we have heretofore 
given to it. It carries with it more of the idea of under- 
standing. Blind belief belongs to the unscientific condi- 
tion of thought from which humanity is now emerging. 
The confidence of knowing is a result of the new and 
larger comprehension which the revelations of science 
have given us, showing that there are no laws but 
spiritual laws, and that Jesus Christ was the most scien- 
tific man that ever lived because he revealed those laws 
as spiritual, applied them for the healing of sickness and 
sin, and showed that they were for the salvation and 
guidance of our universal humanity. 

Spiritual knowing is the key to Bible sunshine. It is 
realizing that God is Infinite Spirit and Infinite Love, 
and that we are His image and likeness — individualized 
expressions and reflections of His being and nature. It 



SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 23 

is realizing that we are spiritual and not material, as St. 
Paul says, " If any man be in Christ he is a new crea- 
ture; old things are passed away; behold all things are 
become new." 

The idea that God cannot be known, and that we can 
only receive spiritual blessings through blind faith is a 
paralizing error. All the truth in the Bible is an appeal 
to our reason. " Come now, and let us reason together," 
saith the Lord; "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall 
be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson 
they shall be as wool. If ye he willing and obedient, ye 
shall eat the good of the land." This appeal shows that 
it is through man's reason that his sins are to be de- 
stroyed and all blessings received. It is only by the 
highest reason that we are able to deny the evidence of 
the senses and look to the unseen universe for our sup- 
ply. Jesus appealed to reason when he taught that even 
the blessings of this life are to be secured by seeking first 
the kingdom of God; that is to say, surrendering our- 
selves wholly to the laws of the spiritual life. The full 
meaning of His teaching is this : Knowing God and loving 
our fellozv-men puts us in the spiritual universe, and gives 
us the blessings of that universe, and these blessings will 
also be expressed in forms adapted to our present material 
consciousness. 

This Truth is the " Pearl of Great Price," and in the 
light of it the Bible becomes a source of sunshine which 
will fill every life with joy Vv^here the truth is received and 
lived. 

See what an appeal to man's reason is made in the fol- 
lowing promises from the 37th Psalm. 



24- SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

"Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou 
dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 

" Delight theyself also in the Lord, and He shall give 
thee the desires of thine heart. 

" Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him 
and He shall bring it to pass. 

" And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the 
light, and thy judgment as the noonday." 

But the reality of our trust must be tested. The bless- 
ings are not bestowed in an hour, for that would be an in- 
jury to us. Therefore the promises are followed by the 
injunction, " Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for 
Him : fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in 
his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked de- 
vices to pass. 

"Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thy- 
self in any wise to do evil; For evildoers shall be cut off; 
hut those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the 
earth:' 

It is through waiting upon the Lord and " acquainting 
ourselves " with Him that we have spiritual blessings 
and spiritual growth. But the word " wait " must be 
taken in the right sense. It is the farthest possible from 
a merely passive state of mind. In fact it is best inter- 
preted by the New Testament standard " Work out your 
own salvation." True waiting is the most effective kind 
of working. The words "Be still and know that I am 
God " are to be understood in the same active sense. It 
is true that the phrase " Be still " does not seem to sug- 
gest activity. But what is the purpose of holding still? 



SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 25 

That we may know God, and knowing God puts us in 
connection with the Supreme Energy of the universe. 
We thus become channels for the influx of the Divine 
power for our own benefit and for the good of our fellow- 
men. To know God is to draw upon His infinite re- 
sources, which become ours in proportion to our reali- 
zation of the truth that they are ours. 

The difference between the experience of spiritual 
" knowing " and that of " trusting in Divine Provi- 
dence " grows largely out of the two different concep- 
tions of God. We cling strongly to our former ideas 
concerning the Divine Personality. Yet if we have that 
thought without the accompanying thought of God as 
Infinite Principle, an all-loving and ever-present Power, 
we are so impressed with the idea of corporeal limitation 
and human weakness that it is hard to hold an unwaver- 
ing faith in times of great darkness and discouragement. 
At such times we can do little more than cry out " Lord, 
I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.'' But changing our 
" belief " to " understanding" ; realizing that Love is an 
infinite and all-pervading Power, then we can say " I 
know in whom I have believed. There cannot be any- 
thing in the universe but Love. I cannot escape from it, 
and however appearances may be to the contrary, I know 
that Love is guiding me, sustaining me, supplying me." 

A poem on the next page expresses the spirit of trust. 



26 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 



RESTLESS HEART, DON'T WORRY SO. 

BY EDITH WILLIS LINN. 

1 

Dear restless heart, be still; don't fret and worry so; 
God hath a thousand ways His love and help to show; 
Just trust, and trust, and trust, until His will you know. 

2. 
Dear restless heart, be still, for peace is God's own smile, 
His lovs^ eas <^very wrong- and sorrow reconcile; 
Just love, and love, and love, and calmly wait a while. 

3. 

Dear restless heart, be brave; don't moan and sorrow so; 
He hath a, meaning- kind in chilly winds that blow; 
Just hope, and hope, and hope, until you braver grow. 

4. 
Dear restless heart, repose upon His heart an hour; 
His heart is strength and life, His heart is bloom and flower; 
Just rest, and rest, and rest, within His tender power. 

5. 
Dear restless heart, be still; don't toil and hurry so; 
God is the silent One, forever calm and slow; 
Just wait, and wait, and wait, and work with Him below. 

6. 
Dear restless heart, be still; don't strug-g-le to be free; 
God's life is in your life; to Him you may not flee; 
Just pray, and pray, and pray, till you have faith to see. 



SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY. 27 



CHAPTER IV. 

SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY — THE PEOPLE'S 

GOSPEL. 

Changing the standard from intellectual knowing to 
spiritual knowing creates a necessity for a new psychol- 
ogy- 
Psychology is defined as "The science of the human 
mind or soul." Study of the subject has heretofore been 
little more than a process of mental anatomy; dissecting 
asd analyzing the mind by methods similar to those em- 
ployed in studying the structure of the body. The study 
of psychology has had little more effect upon the moral 
nature of the student than the study of physiology would 
have. 

The deeper meaning that is now being given to the 
word " science " leads to the development of a new 
psychology. The true science, or " knowing," is not a 
cold process of mental analysis; it goes to the inner- 
most sources of being — to the heart, " out of which are 
the issues of life." Hence the new psycholog}^ in study- 
ing man, begins where man begins; it begins with God. 
In treating this topic, especially in connection with the 
subject of Bible Sunshine, it is necessary to call attention 
to the fact that there are twO' distinct and separate ac- 
counts of creation in Genesis. The first chapter and 
the first five verses of the second chapter describe a 



28 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

spiritual process. It speaks of '' every plant of the 
field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field 
before it grew,'' clearly indicating the spiritual origin of 
all things. Gen. 2: 5. 

With the 6th verse, the nature of the description is en- 
tirely changed. It seems to represent man's material 
conception or idea. "The Lord God formed man of the 
dust of the ground, and breathed intO' his nostrils the 
breath of life; and man became a living soul." 

In the first account the process is represented as be- 
ginning with Creative Love and ending with spiritual 
man. The second begins with a material man and ends 
with sin and death. 

The old psychology is based upon the second account, 
and upon the false idea of the soul as separated from 
God. It accepts the proposition that God is Infinite and 
that He is Good, but its instructions oppose that truth 
by treating man as a separate soul, and evil as a positive 
force. That is to say, according to its teachings the 
universe is full of God, or Good, but it is also occupied 
by other beings beside God, and by another force op- 
posed to the Deific force. 

The new psychology regards all things from the 
spiritual viewpoint. God is Spirit, He is Love, He is 
Infinite. Man is His expression, as rays of light are 
expressions of the sun. He is also His reflection, as a 
mirror reflects objects that are before it. His individual- 
ity belongs to his consciousness and is derived from God. 
That he is an expression of God no more militates 
agaiinst his individuality than does the fact that a num- 



SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY, 29 

ber is an expression of the principle of mathematics mili- 
tate against the individuality of the number. The indi- 
viduality or character of a number depends upon the fact 
that it is an expression of the principle of mathematics. 
So does a man's individuality and character depend upon 
the fact that he is an expression and reflection of God. 

The old psychology is materialistic and purely aca- 
demic. It has no more tendency to create a movement 
for moral reformation among the people than a study of 
quadratic equations. 

The new psychology is spiritual. It is vital. It leads 
thought into the realm of eternal verities. It is a Peo- 
ple's Gospel. Its system of truth is expressed in the five 
following propositions : 

1. God is the only cause. 

2. Spirit is the only substance. 

3. Love is the only force. 

4. Harmony, the reflection of Love, is the only law. 

5. Now is the only time. 

These are not abstract ideas. They are practical ex- 
pressions and applications of the central Revelation of 
Christianity, " The kingdom of God is within you," 
and of the fundamental truth: "In Him we live and 
move and have our being." Let us examine them in 
the light of the above statements: 

1. God is the only cause. This is accepted theoreti- 
cally by all Christians, and does not need to be dwelt 
upon. 

2. Spirit is the only substance."^ This is opposed to the 



* For further consideration of the question of matter see page 35. 



30 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

testimony of the material consciousness, (which we call 
our material senses), but it is a necessary corollary of 
the standards (given above) by which all our ideas and 
theories must be tested. The " Kingdom within " is 
certainly not a material kingdom, nor can we for a 
moment imagine that our bodies live and move and have 
their being in God. We must transfer our thought abso- 
lutely from the material to the spiritual viewpoint. This 
will, of course, be a gradual process. It will require 
striving, but it is the noblest effort that a human being 
can make. By this striving " the creature itself shall be 
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glori- 
ous liberty of the children of God." (Rom. 8: 21.) It 
is also the supreme key to a spiritual interpretation and 
understanding of the Sacred Scriptures; a perpetual 
source of Bible Sunshine. What a flood of light it 
throws upon such passages as the following: 

" They that are after the flesh do mind the things of 
the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of 
the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be 
spiritually minded is life and peace; because the carnal 
(or mortal) mind is enmity against God ; for it is not sub- 
ject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So, then, 
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 

" B'Ut ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be 
that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man 
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if 
Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but 
the Spirit is life because o'f righteousness. But if the 
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in 



SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY, 31 

you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also 
quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth 
in you. 

" Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, 
to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh (the 
material) ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do 
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as 
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of 
God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage 
again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption 
whereby we cry Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 5-15.) 

Let the reader keep in mind the second proposition of 
spiritual psychology as he reads the Bible, and he will 
see what an illumination it continually throws upon the 
sacred pages. 

3. Love is the only force. This thought is treated in 
other chapters and does not call for special discussion 
here. But let it not be forgotten that all the troubles of 
humanity come from belief in a force and power apart 
from God. 

4. Harmony, the reflection of Love, is the only law. 
Discord is not a law. Love, of which harmony is an ex- 
pression or reflection, is the only law. Discord is a vio- 
lation of law. 

5. Now is the only time. Lifting the thought from 
the plane of the material to the plane of the spiritual takes 
us into " the timeless region where one day is as a thou- 
sand years, and a thousand years as one day." All our 
fears and anxieties are borrowed from the past or the 
future. We worry over vain regrets for past mistakes or 



32 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

suffer from dismal forebodings of future ills. Spiritual 
psychology shows that this is not only foolish, but actu- 
ally unscientific. We are one with God, as Jesus taught. 
Then live with Him, rest upon Him, reahze that "all that 
the Father hath is mine," and trust Infinite Love to sup- 
ply all your needs. 

The appearance of darkness in some parts of the Bible 
has been a reflection of the false ideas concerning God. 
Men could only conceive of a Supreme Being in accord- 
ance with their own state of mind. Hence the Bible 
sometimes speaks of God as a Being of wrath and ven- 
geance. But the wrath and vengeance were in the 
thoughts of carnal mind and not in the character of* God, 
for He is Love and only Love. 

Unfortunately this false idea of God was not confined 
to the earlier ages of human history when the race could 
not be expected to have a higher ideal. Although Jesus 
Christ revealed the Supreme Creator as a Being of per- 
fect love, a Heavenly Father, yet the heathenish concep- 
tion was carried into what is called the Christian Era, 
and some of the darkest crimes of the later centuries were 
supposed by their authors and actors to be sanctioned by 
the Bible, because it was still regarded as describing a 
God of wrath and vengeance*. After Cromwell had taken 
the town of Drogheda in Ireland, 'he forbade his soldiers 
to spare any that were in arms in the town, and they put 
to the sword over 2,000 men after they had surrendered. 
Nearly 1,000 were killed in the Church of St. Peter's. 
Cromwell writes concerning the affair, " We put to the 
sword the whole number of the defendants. * * * 
This hath been a marvellous great mercy. I wish that 



SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY, J3 

all honest hearts may give glory of this to God alone, to 
whom indeed the praise of this mercy^ belongs." 

All misconceptions of the Bible have resulted from in- 
terpreting it in accordance with the letter instead of the 
spirit, in spite of its own declaration that 'The letter 
killeth, but the spirit giveth life." The horrors of the in- 
quisition were justified by quoting the text "Compel 
them to come in." How many thousands of innocent 
people have been tortured and slain by reason of the bar- 
barous law of an undeveloped people, " Thou shalt not 
suffer a witch to live." 

Spiritual psychology changes darkness to sunshine in 
many parts of the Bible by substituting the correct 
standard of Truth and error for the false standard of 
good and evil. Truth is right thinking about God and 
our fellow-men. Error is wrong thinking. Error, 
wrong thinking, can make evil seem like a terrible reality 
while Truth, right thinking, can banish it altogether. 
Error or wrong thinking about God and his fellow-men 
led Cromwell to commit his cruel acts. Truth or right 
thinking would have kept him from committing them. 

Spiritual psychology suggests and directs the true pro- 
cess of evolution, of which material evolution is only a 
shadow or symbol. The real evolution is an unfolding of 
the spiritual consciousness. 

Spiritual Psychology; or the People's Gospel has this 
divine sign and seal of Truth — it appeals to little children. 
It is the condemning quality of intellectual pyschology 
and its accompanying system of scholastic theology that 
it is not adapted to the nature of childhood. This sub- 
ject is treated in a separate chapter. 



34 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 



CHAPTER V. 
DOMINION THROUGH LOVE. 

" And God said, Let us make man in our image, after 
our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish 
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cat- 
tle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing 
that moveth upon the earth." 

Has this saying been realized in t\he history of the 
race? We are disposed to think so, because man has a 
certain ascendency over the animal creation. But this 
ascendency has been very far from dominion in any 
proper sense of that word. Many men have conquered 
and killed many animals, but, on the other hand, how 
many men have themselves been overcome and slain by 
wild beasts of every sort, by poisonous serpents, yea, 
even by the stinging of insects. If the history were writ- 
ten from the side of the animals 'they could make out a 
pretty fair showing of dominion as an offset to ours. 

The truth is that, like so much of the language of 
Scripture, these words were prophetic of a future ideal, 
and only partially true of the passing condition. Man- 
kind did not possess the key of dominion. They sup- 
posed it was to be secured by force and self assertion. 
Jesus Christ revealed the truth that it is to be gained 
through Love and self-surrender. 

The statements of Spiritual Psychology supply the 



DOMINION THROUGH LOVE, 35 

key or clue to dominion. Take the first one: " God is 
the only cause." Can God be thought of as creating the 
perishable substance called matter? No, it is unthink- 
able for three reasons: (i) He is infinite, and could not 
reduce himself to anything less. (2) He is unchange- 
able, and could not express himself in that which 
changes. (3) He is eternal, and could not express 
Himself in that which is destructible. Therefore, since 
we believe that He created the universe and man, we are 
led irresistibly to the conclusion that, as God is Spirit, 
the real universe, and the real man must be spiritual and 
not material. 

What place, then, has matter in the new psychology? 

It is a truly remarkable fact that just as the people are 
asking this question from the purely practical side, 
science is reaching the conclusion that matter and not 
Spirit must be called " the unknowable." The closest 
search for the final atom fails to reveal it, and scientists 
now acknowledge that in its place they can only discern 
a theoretical *' point of force " or " center of force." 
Matter is called substance, yet even this word bears tes- 
timony to its unreality. It is substance, that which stands 
under. It is defined as " That which underlies all 
outward manifestation; that which is real in distinction 
from that which is apparent." In other words, the real 
is not *' the outward manifestation," but " that which 
underlies it." What can we conclude from all this but 
that the spiritual is the only real and the supersensible is 
the only natural? * 



* Some of the utterances of the late Professor Max MuUer on 



36 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

Dominion through Love and self-surrender is the cor- 
ner-stone of Christianity. In 'fact, it is the only Christi- 
anity. But when the truth was announced by Christ 
Jesus, nineteen centuries ago, the world was not in a 
condition to receive and apply it. Hence the Master 
was obliged to say, '* I have other things to say to you, 
but ye cannot bear them now." 

In the larger comprehension, which the race has 
gained through its long period of discipline and growth, 
we are able to see that the self-denial taught by Jesus is 
a denial of all that belongs to the sense-life — the material 
sense of being. 

The world was not without witness for spiritual domin- 
ion in its earlier history. What saved Hagar in the 

the subject of matter are so striking that a few brief extracts 
are here quoted: 

" To speak of matter or substance as something- existing by 
Itself and presented to the senses is mere mythology. * • • 
Matter is a word and concept of our own making, and it con- 
tains neither more nor less than we have put into it. * * • 
From this point of view I call materialism no more than a 
gn'ammatical blunder. It is the substitution of a nominative 
for an accusative, or of an active for a passive verb. At first 
we mean by matter what is perceived, not, indeed, by itself, 
but by its qualities; but in the end it is made to mean the 
very opposite, namely, what perceives, and is thus supposed to 
lay hold of and strangle itself. * * * It is admitted on all 
sides that there never could be such a thing as an object or as 
matter except when it has been perceived by a subject or a 
mind. And yet we are asked by materialists to believe that 
the perceiving subject, or the mind, is really the result of a 
long continued development of the object, or of matter. This 
is a logical somersault which it seems almost impossible to 
perform, and yet it has been performed again and again in the 
history of philosophy." (From "Three Introductory Lectures 
on the Science oif Thought.") 



DOMINION THROUGH LOVE, 37 

wilderness? " God opened her eyes, and she saw a well 
of water." She was permitted, centuries in advance of 
most of her fellow-mortals, to enjoy the experience of a 
spiritual law which Jesus revealed in its fulness. So was 
the young man with Elisha, " The Lord opened his 
eyes, and behold the mountain was full of horses and 
chariots of fire round about Elisha." So was Daniel 
when the power of the Spirit bound the mouths of the 
lions. If we live, move and have our being in God, then 
it must certainly be true that God's power is our power 
in proportion as we have understanding to receive it. 
The Apostle Peter had a moment of faith which enabled 
him to walk on the water. His faith failed and he sank, 
but the law of spiritual dominion did not fail. It was 
there for his benefit if he had understood it. 

With reference to the general subject of " dominion " 
it must not be forgotten that even in the ordinary process 
of development man is daily gaining more and more of 
his rightful heritage. Through electricity he has already 
annihilated time and space, and it is beyond question that 
he will continually rise in his mastery of the so-called 
" laws of nature," which are the laws of God — His meth- 
ods of operation. Man is now subject to the law of grav- 
itation, which often leads to his injury or his destruction. 
But there is an opposite principle of levitation that he will 
learn to utilize, and when that is mastered man can rise 
from the earth and move through the air at will. It is 
said to have been scientifically demonstrated that the spe- 
cific gravity of the body is changed by the mind; one 
who is in a high spiritual state being perceptibly lighter 



38 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

while in that condition. This points clearly to the 
natural order of miracles or the naturalness of the super- 
natural or supersensible. When the race becomes per- 
fectly spiritualized, people can walk on the water as 
Jesus did. His dominion came from His selfless life, and 
He showed the way which all may follow. The highest 
scientific authorities now admit that miracles are not vio- 
lations of law, but are the result of laws not yet under- 
stood. Huxley says: 'T am unaware of anything that 
has a right to be called an impossibility. There are im- 
poss)ibilities logical (for instance, "a round square" or a 
"present past"), but not natural. Walking on the water, 
turning water into wine or raising the dead are plainly 
not impossibilities in the logical sense." 

A passage lin the Psalms (the 8th) which proclaims 
man's dominion has heretofore been usually quoted for 
exactly the opposite purpose, namely, to support the 
worm-of-the-dust idea of man. Let us examine it : 

" When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy 
fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast or- 
dained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and 
the son of man that Thou visitest him? " 

That is to say (as we have usually read it), what a 
miserable little insignificant creature is man! But what 
are the words that follow ? How unreasonable it is to 
read the passage as if it stood alone. 

" For Thou hast made him but little lower than 
God (Revised Version) and hast crowned him with glory 
and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the 
works of Thy hands ; Thou hast put all things under his 



DOMINION THROUGH LOVE 39 

feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the 
field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and what- 
soever passes through the paths of the sea." 

The Psalm not only gives an exalted conception of 
God's glory, but also of man's dignity and power. 

But we cannot have dominion unless we claim it. 
And we cannot claim it if we hold ourselves in material 
limitations. With our lips we say, " Thine is the king- 
dom." But God's kingdom is spiritual and not material, 
and our words are rendered null and void if we make a 
reality also of the kingdom of matter. With our lips 
we say, '' Thine is the power." But our words are " as 
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal " if we recognize 
evil as a power, or if we look to any source but God for 
the help we need. Dominion is to be exercised through 
Love, and we shall have dominion in proportion as we 
realize that Love is infinite, and therefore there is noth- 
ing in God's universe, the spiritual universe, our uni- 
verse, but Love and its infinite forms of expression. 

Dominion through Love is one phase of the question 
of the power of thought. If we are obHged tO' live in fre- 
quent association with some one who has an unfriendly 
feeling toward us and does not hesitate to express it, how 
is such a one to be conquered? Certainly not by antag- 
onism. We know that. But we are not quite so clear 
that it cannot be done by words of some kind — words of 
expostulation, of argument, perhaps even of entreaty. 
Very rarely does that method succeed, for the act of 
voicing the error is apt to only increase it. There is a 
method that cannot fail. " Prophecies will fail ; tongues 



40 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

will cease; knowledge will vanish away. But Love 
never faileth." We must first conquer our own preju- 
dice, for there is always some wrong on our own part. 
Say to yourself " I can love him, I will love him, I do 
love him." Say it frequently, day after day, if need be 
till your feeling of antagonism is mastered. Then hold 
the same thought for the other one. " He can love me, 
he will love me, he does love me." Thoughts are 
things, and if you persevere in this there is no power in 
the universe that can keep you from winning his love. 
And in the struggle to overcome your erring self you are 
doing a work for your own spiritual growth the value of 
which cannot be expressed in words. It is a process of 
resurrection which will be considered in the following 
chapter. 



THE PROCESS OF RESURRECTION. 41 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE PROCESS OF RESURRECTION. 

What an amazing truth is this which is now dawning 
upon human consciousness. There is but one real uni- 
verse, a spiritual universe, which expresses the Being and 
essence of God — Life, Truth and Love reflected in 
Goodness, Beauty, Harmony. Man also is spiritual and 
only spiritual. He is now living in a false state of con- 
sciousness which he calls a material world and a material 
universe. The way to pass from the material world to 
the spiritual universe is not by dying, but by obeying the 
laws of the spiritual universe, that is to say, by following 
the principle of Life, Truth and Love. 

This is the key and the only key to the life and teach- 
ings of Jesus Christ. The law of life He gave, " Deny 
self," means to deny the whole false consciousness of 
material existence, and live for the spiritual alone. Only 
by this key can we understand a statement for which 
scholastic theology has no interpretation. " If any man 
keep my saying he shall never see death." When man 
has attained the complete self-mastery which is his birth- 
right, he will have passed through the process of resur- 
rection. Like Enoch, he will walk with God, " The last 
enemy that shall be destrpyed is death." 

This stupendous truth has always been near to the 
thought of highly spiritualized men and women, and has 



42 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

found partial expression in the words of many poets and 
seers. Milton said: 

" What if earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
Each to each other like, more than on earth is thought." 

Charles Kingsley said, " The belief is becoming every 
day stronger with me that all symmetrical objects are 
types otf some spiritual truth or existence. Everything 
seems to be full of God's reflex if we could but see it. 
Oh! to see, if but for a moment, the whole harmony of 
the great system; to hear once the music that the whole 
universe makes as it performs His bidding!" 

These are foregleams of an experience which must and 
will go on to perfection as humanity rises to its true 
estate. The point is now reached where Hfe can be 
understood as a process of resurrection. The elements 
of Life, which are also Truth and Love, cannot be 
assimilated at once, but as they are mastered and wrought 
into being, we are, to the extent of the mastery lifted 
above the domination of the material. Every faculty we 
possess must be born from the lower to the higher, from 
the domain of the human to the realm of the divine, from 
self as the object of thought and center of life to God or 
Good as the object of thought and center of life. 

Selfhood belongs as truly to the material plane as mat- 
ter does. Hence overcoming self in the use of any 
faculty or power lifts that faculty or power from the 
plane of the material to the plane of the spiritual. It is 
a resurrection. 

This truth underlies much of the teachings of St. Paul. 



THE PROCESS OF RESURRECTION. 43 

" I die daily," said the noble apostle. Did Paul have a 
funeral every day? Far from it. Although he used the 
word " die," yet it is certain that what he had in mind 
was the resurrection from the death of one appeal of his 
carnal nature after another. The law " As he thinketh 
in his heart so is he " is eternal and absolute, and without 
limit in its appUcation. As long as we believe in the 
power of the material, just so long shall we be under its 
dominion. And, on the other hand, just so far as we 
believe in the supremacy of the spiritual, and demon- 
strate this belief by self-mastery, just so far shall we con- 
trol the forces of the universe. One who had gained this 
power, meeting a tiger in the jungle, stood facing the 
animal till it turned away and slunk into the thicket. 
When asked how he was able to exert such control, he 
replied, " Because I have conquered the tiger in my own 
nature." 

Jesus said " He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he 
that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life 
eternal." Is not this principle the basis of Schopen- 
hauer's philosophy, showing that his so-called pessimism 
involves a profound truth? Shopenhauer has been con- 
demned for saying that this world is the worst kind of a 
world, and that the one task man has to accomplish is to 
overcome what he calls "the will to live"; that is, the 
will or desire to be in and of this world. But is not this 
the true meaning of Christ's words, " He that hateth his 
life shall keep it." He opposes the lower and keeps the 
higher. He refutes the material and temporal and 
keeps the spiritual and eternal. 



44 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

The law of spiritual regeneration can mean nothing 
less than this — 'that obeying the rule of Love and self- 
denial begins an actual process of dematerialization. 
The material concept decreases and the spiritual in- 
creases. Selfishness is materialism. It belongs to the 
realm of the material and not to the realm of the 
spiritual. Hence in our victories over self and sin we 
are pass'ing through an actual and final resurrection 
from a material condition to a spiritual existence. 
That we are not yet conscious of the stupendous fact 
does not affect its truth. " What we know not now we 
shall know hereafter." 

Does this idea seem fanciful and unpractical? It is 
the most intensely practical truth in the universe. It 
cannot appear otherwise to one who understands it. A 
victory over an evil habit or tendency is a victory to all 
eternity. Is there anything unpractical in that? Every 
wrong propensity mastered and overcome is an actual 
building of the spiritual body. Is not that a " business " 
which makes buying and selling and money-getting 
appear smaller than the most trifling games of child- 
hood? And the glory of it is that the very buying and 
selling becomes by this law the creator of divine and 
eternal realities. Flour and sugar and shoes are not 
heavenly objects, but to sell them in honesty, justice and 
love brings heaven down into the marts of trade. 

If any readers are puzzled by what seems to them a 
metaphysical subtlety or useless theory concerning the 
relation of Spirit and matter, let them not be confused or 
discouraged. Practically it amounts to just this, that 



THE PROCESS OF RESURRECTION. 45 

we should make as much as possible of the spiritual and as 
little as possible of the material. We need to surrender the 
human standard of life and conduct, and accept the 
Christ standard instead. What is this standard? "Love 
God. Love man. Keep the commandments. Live in 
the unseen universe. Trust it as your source of supply." 
Carrying out these precepts is a practical denial of self 
and there is no other kind of self-denial but it. To 
those who live such a life the words are spoken, " If ye 
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask 
what ye will and it shall be done unto you." 

But there is a condition to fulfil on our part. " What 
things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye 
receive them and ye shall have them." This is not an 
arbitrary rule. The action of electricity furnishes a very 
helpful illustration of the rule of trusting and receiving. 
If we could imagine a trolley wire as not beheving that 
the electric fluid could pass through it, we can see that 
this lack of faith would hinder or stop the vibrations. 
Thought, based upon reason and understanding, is a re- 
ceptive attitude of the mind which establishes a connec- 
tion with the source of supply. 

Jesus Christ demonstrated the truth that man can live 
in conscious union with God, and enjoy an actual resur- 
rection apart from the realm of the material and in the 
realm of the spiritual, and control the material through 
the higher laws of the sp-iritual. 

The process of resurrection is beautifully expressed by 
the following verses by an unknown writer: 



46 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

OUR RESURRECTION. 



Out of the sordid, the base, the untrue. 
Into the noble, the pure and the new; 
Out of all darkness, and sadness and sin. 
Spiritual harmonies to win, 

This is our resurrection. 

2. 

Out of all discord and toil and strife. 
Into a calm and perfect life. 
Out of all hatred and jealous fear 
Into love's cloudless atmosphere. 
This is our resurrection. 



Out of the narrow and cramping creeds 
Into a service of loving deeds; 
Out of a separate, limited plan. 
Into the Brotherhood of Man, 

This is our resurrection. 

4. 

Out of our weakness to conscious power, 
Wisdom and strength for every hour, 
Out of our doubt and sore dismay 
Into the faith for which w:S pray. 
This is our resurrection. 



Out of the bondage of sickness and pain, 
Out of poverty's galling chain, 
Into the freedom of perfect health, 
Into the blessings of fadeless wealth. 
This is our resurrection. 



Out of this fleeting mortal breath, 
Out of the valley and shadow of death, 
Into the light of the perfect way, 
Into the freedom of endless day. 
This is our resurrection. 

7. 

Out of the finite sense of -things, 
Into the joy the Infinite brings. 
Out of the limits of time and space. 
Into the boundless life of the race, 
This is our resurrection. 



NOW. 47 



CHAPTER VII. 
NOW. 

The keynote of Jesus Christ's message to the world 

is in the Httle word now. The brief statement " The 

kingdom of God is within you " was a proclamation of 

emancipation for the human race. It abolished the 

limitations of time, and introduced the freedom of 

eternity. 

"How far from here to heaven? Not very far my friend; 
A single hearty step will all thy journey end. 
Hold there, where runnest thou? Know heaven is in thee, 
Seekest thou for God elsewhere, His face thoul't never see." 

Enslaved people are never ready for freedom when it 
first comes to them. This was especially true of man- 
kind when the law of liberty was announced by the 
Divine Emancipator. Mental and spiritual fetters are 
not easily put aside. Moreover, the law of eternal life 
involves principles that the world was not prepared to 
understand. A Httle child can understand them, yes; 
but the race had outgrown the simplicity of childhood. 
It was in the self-satisfied stage of immature youth. 

The Divine Teacher did not fail to reveal the liberat- 
ing principle; "the Truth shall make you free." Yet 
when Pilate asked the question, '' What is Truth?" he 
gave no answer. " Jesus the Christ knew the human in- 
telligence too well to feed it upon dry formula that 
should take the place of living thought. He would not 



48 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

think for his followers. He required that they should 
think for themselves."* He did not need to define 
Truth. His whole life was an exposition and demonstra- 
tion of it. Yet he did explicitly announce the principle 
of freedom in these words : " This is life eternal, that 
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent." This does not mean that 
we are to know two persons, God and Christ, but to 
know Christ as a revelation and interpretation of God as 
Love. 

The edict of human emancipation was proclaimed 
nineteen centuries ago. Why, then, is slavery still so 
universal? Few are the Christians who are not living in 
a prison-house of bondage to weakness, to fear, to limi- 
tations of every kind. 

It is because matter has been believed to be as real as 
Spirit, and evil as potent as good. While those two 
errors remain in the mind, absolute freedom is impos- 
sible. 

Modern science has prepared the way for breaking the 
last fetters of man's enslavement, first by admitting the 
non-substantiality of matter, and, second, by recognizing 
intuition instead of intellect as the true guide and moni- 
tor of man. This recognition confirms the teachings of 
Jesus concerning the inner kingdom of Spirit, and shows 
the Man of Nazareth as the supreme scientist of the ages. 

Here, then, we have the vast significance of the word 
now. All things are ours in proportion to our faith and 
understanding. But we must believe and trust. In 



* Rev. Algernon S. Crapsey. 



NOW. 49 

finding God we find everything, but we cannot find Him 
when we are impatient, anxious or depressed. Hence 
the numberless injunctions to " trust in the Lord" ; " wait 
on the Lord"; "rest in the Lord"; "be not anxious"; 
'' beHeve that ye have and ye shall receive," etc., etc. 

Every blessing that is promised as a reward of faith is 
promised now. We do not have to wait for it for an 
hour. If" it does not come at once, it is because our 
doubts still prevail, even when we think we have con- 
quered them. Many texts in the Bible which seem to 
refer to the future have a present meaning when rightly 
understood. A few illustrations may be given: 

" We know that when he shall appear we shall be like 
him, for we shall see him as he is." i John 3 :2. 

The true appearing of Christ is when he is revealed to 
our consciousness. When we see him in our own hearts 
and are conscious of being joined to him as the branch is 
joined to the vine, and when we prove this by '" doing 
his commandments," then we shall, indeed, be like him. 
I once heard a minister pray thus: " Help the pure in 
heart to see God." This Avas a needless prayer. The 
pure in heart cannot be kept from seeing God, for by 
their purity they are taken out of the realm of matter 
into the realm of Spirit where God dwells. 

" I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." 
Ps., 17 : 15. Then the thing to do is to wake up now. 
Dying cannot help us if we have not already acquired 
somewhat of the likeness to God. It should be a matter 
of present cultivation and not merely of future hope. 

" Having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which 
is far better." Phil, i : 23. Whatever Paul meant by this, 



50 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

we may and should cultivate a desire to depart from the 
things of self and sense and dwell now with Christ in the 
realm of Spirit, which is, indeed, far better than the best 
that flesh can give. 

The truth is that there is not, and cannot be any time 
but now. Now is God's time. Yesterday and to-mor- 
row belong entirely to man's limited thought. "Acquaint 
thyself now with God and be at peace; thereby good 
shall come unto thee." I formerly supposed that the 
word now in this text was superfluous, and often 
omitted it in quoting the verse. It was a great mistake. 
The reason why so many human hopes totter and fall to 
destruction is that they are not built on God's eternal 
now. " The hour is coming and now is when the dead 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear 
shall live." 

1. 

Day by day the manna fell; 
Oh, to learn this lesson well! 
Still by constant mercy fed, 
Give me, Lord, my daily bread. 

2. 
" Day by day," the promise reads, 
" Daily strength for daily needs, 

Cast foreboding care away, 

Take the manna for to-day." 

3. 
Lord, my times are in thy hand; 
All my sanguine hopes have planned 
To thy wisdom I resign, 
And would mould my will to thine. 

4. 
Thou my daily task shall give; 
Day by day to Thee I live; 
So shall added years fulfil 
Not my own, my Father's will. * 



Josiah Conder, 



OUR DIVINE PARTNERSHIP. ^i 



CHAPTER VIII. 
OUR DIVINE PARTNERSHIP. 

If God is an infinite Being expressing Himself in the 
universe and in man, it is certain that there can be no 
business in the universe but God's business. We see 
this clearly with reference to inanimate things, but not so 
clearly where we are personally concerned. It is God's 
business to keep the planets in their orbits, but is it His 
business to keep our affairs in order? It would he if we 
would let Him. He is our Divine Partner, and He is the 
most satisfactory partner we could possibly have, for He 
is not only wilHng, but anxious to assume entire respon- 
sibility for the success of the firm. All He asks of us is 
absolute confidence in the Senior Partner; perfect sur- 
render to His judgment in conducting the business. 

The first stipulation He makes is that we shall keep 
the rules of the house. They may be found on every 
page of the Day Book: 

Love God. 

Love Man. 

Deny Self. 

Keep the Commandments. 

The only stipulation beyond this schedule is that we 
shall believe and act fully up to the belief that He is man- 
aging the business for the best interest of all concerned. 

The terms of the partnership are expressed by St. 



5^ SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

Paul, " Work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling, for it is God who worketh in you both to will 
and to do of His good pleasure." But under the worm- 
of-the-dust idea of scholastic theology, the emphasis has 
mostly been given to the first half of the statement, and 
the blessed fact of the partnership has been lost sight of. 
Christians have been so strongly impressed with the idea 
that they must " work " and " fear " and " tremble " that 
the strength and consolation of the second clause have 
been almost wholly lost. To remove this wrong impres- 
sion, let us reverse the form of the statement and read it 
thus : " Since it is God who worketh in you both to will 
and to do of His good pleasure, therefore work out your 
own salvation with fear and trembling." 

The words '' fear " and " trembling " must have a new 
interpretation under the conception of God as Love, and 
man as His child, made in His image and likeness. 
" Fear " cannot imply any cringing or shrinking sense 
of inferiority such as one would feel in the presence of a 
mighty potentate. True fear of God is a feeling of rev- 
erence. In its practical effect it is also a watchful care 
lest we fail to trust our Divine Partner perfectly. He 
says that if we want to succeed in business we must 
transfer our attention from outward or material things 
to inner and spiritual things. Only in this way can the 
outward things be properly secured. In other words, 
cease worrying about the outward things and give atten- 
tion wholly to obeying the four business rules, and the 
material things will be suppHed. 

This is a wonderful law. It is not strange that the 
world has been nineteen centuries in learning the lesson. 



OUR DIVINE PARTNERSHIP, 53 

Nor is it strange that when the truth is presented it does 
not find quick acceptance. 

Emerson was one of the heralds and prophets of the 
new order of Hfe. That he was misunderstood in his 
day and generation goes without saying. His ideas 
were supposed to be in the clouds, and to have no more 
relation to the practical side of life than a beautiful sun- 
set has to the growth of vegetables in a garden. But 
the world is growing wiser. Emerson was first mis- 
understood, then admired for his beautiful thoughts, 
and finally accepted as an interpreter of spiritual truths. 
But that his most transcendent teaching was the most 
practical, that in it he gave a firm and fixed foundation 
for the stern realities of life was not known or suspected 
till the law of Spiritual knowing was revealed, giving 
form and meaning to that which before had seemed but 
the baseless fabric of a vision. 

How vague and visionary his language seems to the 
materiaHst, but how sensible and practical it appears to 
one who realizes " the allness and everywhereness of 
God." Listen to his words: "Man is a stream whose 
source is hidden. Always our being descends into us 
from we know not where. I am constrained every 
moment to acknowledge a higher law for events than the 
will I call mine. From within or from behind a light 
shines through us upon all things, and makes us aware 
that we are nothing, but the light is all. * * * Your 
isolation must not be mechanical, but practical. At 
times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to im- 
portune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, 
sickness, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet 
door, and say, ' Come out unto us,* 



54 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

" Do not spill thy soul. Do not descend. Keep thy 
estate. Stay at home in thine own heaven. Come not 
for a moment into their facts, into their hubbub of con 
fiicting appearances, but let in the light of thy law on 
their confusion." 

What does all this mean, practically? It means just 
what Jesus meant when he said that the real kingdom is 
spiritual and not material. " It is within you. Live in 
it and for it and the outer needs will be supplied." 
"What," says the farmer, the merchant, the housekeeper, 
"am I to go into that kingdom to plow my field, to sell 
my goods, to manage my household?" Yes. Your life 
is in God. You cannot perform the simplest act 
without the aid of your Divine Partner, and He can only 
be found in your inner world. 

There were many who understood the Divine Partner- 
ship after the departure of Christ, and they realized the 
ascendency over the flesh that was originally promised. 
But when Christianity was made a state religion by Con- 
stantine, formalism began to take the place of vital faith. 
God was taken out of man's inner temple, where Christ 
showed He was to be found, and was transformed into 
an austere autocrat ruling mankind from a throne in the 
distant skies. The work of this generation is to restore 
Him to His proper throne, the heart. There He rules, 
not as a potentate to make man a slave, but as a Father 
to make His children free ; to restore the lost heritage of 
dominion to which he was originally born. 

Let it not be forgotten that the keynote of this domin- 
ion is surrender. Only in being willing to give up all 
things do we become worthy to have all things. Let us 
consider the principle in the light of an illustration: 



OUR DIVINE PARTNERSHIP. 55 

A father says to a young son: " I have deposited a 
milHon dollars in the bank for your use. But you have 
not yet had enough experience in life to enable you to 
draw it out in proper sums or to use it wisely. I will 
therefore apportion it to you myself from day to day. 
I do not wish to do this in a stinted way. There are rea- 
sons why I prefer to have you use it freely, even lavishly. 
But one thing must not be lost sight of. The money 
must ever be a means of increasing your love and respect 
for me, and of drawing us together in closer bonds of 
sympathy. In fact, the amount you receive from day to 
day will depend upon the honor you do me by the up- 
rightness of your life and the degree of loving confidence 
you manifest, showing the world how much you love me 
and how truly you believe in me." 

This brief outline of the illustration is sufficient. Its 
application is obvious. Not a million dollars, but a 
million million blessings, covering every possible need 
of mankind and every craving of the heart, has God 
placed at our disposal. And His purpose is that we shall 
be drawn into an eternal partnership with Him by the 
mutual process of bestowing and receiving these gifts. 
I do not say into eternal imion with Him, for that exists 
already. The partnership is created by our recognition 
and acceptance of the union. Our part is to accept the 
fact of the union and thus establish the partnership. 

Although our Divine Partner agrees to assume all the 
responsibility of the business, yet our part is not easy at 
first. It would be easy if we would accept the fact and 
rest upon it — 'trust it perfectly. But we are not only 
partners, we are also children whom God the Father is 



5(5 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

training for His eternal companionship and for eternal 
usefulness in His kingdom. Therefore our faith is put 
to many and severe tests. The million dollars may be 
in the bank, but very little of it is in evidence. Our divi- 
dends seem very small, and we begin to doubt Whether 
they may not fail entirely to-morrow or next week. 
Here is where we make our great mistake. We are not 
content to accept the supply for to-day, and so by our 
doubts we cut off or diminish the supply for to-morrow. 
" Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it." But our lack 
of understanding leads us to say, " O, no, I must be 
modest. I must not presume upon God's goodness. I 
will not make too great demands upon His generosity; 
I will open my mouth a little way." And all the while 
our Father and partner is saying, " try me now, and see 
if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you 
out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to 
receive it." 

The purpose of this chapter is to encourage all whose 
desire is to do good. To them the assurance may be 
made without reservation : Your business is God's busi- 
ness. He is your Partner, and the divine resources are 
your capital. All He asks is your unquestioning confi- 
dence; a trust that accepts His guidance every moment 
without an anxious thought. If you are in trouble. He 
asks you to realize that He is your source of help and 
not any fellow-mortal. 

" Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh 
flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the 
Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and 



OUR DIVINE PARTNERSHIP, 57 

shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the 
parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not 
inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, 
and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree 
planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots 
by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but 
her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the 
year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." 
Jere. 17 : 5-7. 

Observe the striking statements that they who trust 
in man " shall not see when good cometh," while those 
who trust in the Lord shall be Hke a tree that is uncon- 
scious of the drought and " shall not see when heat 
cometh." Those who trust the external world will be- 
come so blind in their judgment that they cannot dis- 
cern God's blessings when He sends them, and they who 
trust the unseen will be so secure that they will not be 
disturbed by the appearance of limitation or misfortune. 
They will know that God's power cannot fail, and there- 
fore they will not be " careful, neither shall they cease 
from yielding fruit." 

The experience of George MuUer confirms this truth. 
When a young man he became impressed by the idea 
that if he would go directly to God for aid in carrying on 
his work, the means would be forthcoming in answer to 
prayer without appealing to his fellow-men for help. 
He held rigidly to the principle, and received by free 
contributions during the course of his life, and ex- 
pended for his orphan as3dums, more than seven million 
dollars. Many times the larder was entirely empty, with 



S8 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

no knowledge as to where the next meal would come 
from. At such times Mr. Muller instructed his assis- 
ants to be especially careful not to let their situation 
become known, and there was never a time when food 
was not supplied by the time it was needed. His 
Divine Partner never failed him. I remember well hear- 
ing Mr. Muller say in a public address during one of his 
American visits : " I am not tired of the ways of God." 
No one can ever become tired of the ways of God. But 
we get very tired of our own ways. Then let us exchange 
them for God's way. " Commit thy way unto the Lord; 
trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass." Not 
at the first moment, perhaps. Not when our impatience 
demands it. When we are impatient we may know to 
a certainty that it is our way and not God's way that we 
are seeking. " Intensity is greed." That is to say, 
when we follow any purpose with intense eagerness, in- 
stead of a spirit of waiting on the Lord, it shows that we 
are grasping after some gain for ourselves, however we 
may imagine that we are working for God and our 
fellow-men. The following lines are a wholesome anti- 
dote for intensity: 

My hand had grown all feverish. 

And cumbered with much care; 
Trembling- with haste and eagerness, 

Nor folded oft in prayer. 
The Master came and touched my hands 

With healing in His own; 
And calm and still to do His will 

They grew, the fever gone. 
" I must have quiet hands," said he, 
" Wherewith to work My works through thee." • 



Author unknown. 



THE POWER OF THOUGHT. 59 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE POWER OF THOUGHT. 

Thought-force is the only force in the universe. 
We sometimes speak of material laws, but there are no 
material laws. Gravitation, cohesion, the falling of an 
apple, the swinging of a planet through space — these 
and all other so-called natural phenomena are but the 
manifestation of thought-force. 

In the development of life and character the power of 
thought is absolutely without limit. " As he thinketh in 
his heart, so is he." 

"And good may ever conquer ill, 

Health walk where pain has trod; 
As a man thinketh, so is he; 
Rise, then, and think with God." 

Shakespeare expresses the truth in a different form. 
" There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking 
makes it so." 

The law has no limit. We are not merely strongly 
influenced by our thoughts, we are actually formed and 
created by them. If we hold high and noble thoughts, 
we will inevitably become high and noble. If we hold 
low and groveling thoughts, our own natures will gravi- 
tate irresistibly to the low and groveling. 

The reason it is hard for us to believe in the absolute 
power of thoug'ht is that we have not dared to fully com- 
mit ourselves to it. Appearances are against it, and it 



do SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

is hard to resist the impression of appearances. The 
words of Jesus go vastly deeper than we suppose — 
" Judge not according to the appearance, but judge 
righteous judgment." Dr. George D. Herron says, 
" The Godhood of human Hfe is the fact that spiritual 
evolution is slowly bringing to light. Evolution and 
history join with Jesus in pointing to the coming of a 
common divine manhood Which shall be God's real and 
visible presence. From this inwardly masterful and 
elemental manhood, emancipated from every outward 
master and from every form of fear, each man will rise 
to see and individualize God for and in himself." 

That is to say, each will see that he is individualized 
in God, and will thus find the secret of his power. 

But he must understand that there is no real power 
but Love. This must be true, or God is less than infinite. 

Where, then, does evil get its appearance of power, a 
power so great that it often pushes its victim to destruc- 
tion, or seems to do so? 

It gets its power from our own thought. It has all 
the power that we concede to it in our thought and no 
more. Love or goodness is a positive force. Its 
source is in God and therefore its power is irresistible. 

Light is a positive force. It is the medium for creat- 
ing all the life there is on earth. Darkness is not a posi- 
tive force; it is only the absence of light. Bring light 
and darkness disappears. So with evil, the negative, and 
good, the positive. 

We see the tremendous power of thought in that it 
can admit the idea of evil and thus for the time we be- 



THE POWER OF THOUGHT, 6i 

come slaves to it. But this is the negative side, and we 
should now and forever turn away from the negative to 
the positive. There is the real power, for it is God — 
" the Eternal Goodness," as Whittier expresses it. It 
is ignorance of the nature of God that leads us to turn 
our thought away from Him, and hence we read in 
Hosea 6:8: "My people are destroyed for lack of 
knowledge." If we know that God is infinite, omni- 
potent and omni-present Good, and that we are an ex- 
pression of His being, then there can be no practical 
limit to the beneficent outgoings of our lives, nor to the 
love, joy and peace that will flow into us. " Whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never 
thirst." 

But we must use this truth rationally and wisely. If 
any one thinks that watchfulness is made unnecessary by 
the discovery that evil is not a positive force, but has 
only the power we concede to it, he makes a prodigious 
mistake, as he will sooner or later find to his cost. 
Which is the worst enemy, a Satan in hell after the Mil- 
tonic pattern, or a subtle devil in our own heart, created 
by our own lack of understanding of the Eternal Good- 
ness? Thoughts are things. The Divine Teacher said 
that harboring a lustful thought virtually changes it to 
a criminal act. We take pains to guard our pocket- 
books, but it is infinitely more important to guard our 
thoughts. We repel tramps from our door, but admit 
any number of tramp thoughts into the mind. St. Paul 
has given us the rule: "Whatsoever things are true, 
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 



62 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be 
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
things." 

And let it not be forgotten that thinking of high and 
noble things is a building process. It is a construction of 
our own eternal mansion. Not only our mansion in 
Heaven, but right here in our present life. Then let us 
turn our thought resolutely from the wrong to the right, 
from the human to the Divine, and hold it firmly there 
against every temptation of the lower nature. We must 
realize that we are children of God, made in His image 
and likeness, and that we share His dominion. His 
power is ours, we need not be weak. His life is ours, we 
need not be sick. His riches are ours, we need not be 
poor. Let our mental pictures be wholly of life, health, 
abundance, and those gifts will certainly be ours, for 
God is Love, and His law of Love is perfect. 

But we must remember the Master's words, " Believe 
that ye have, and ye shall receive." When we pray we 
must change the thought of need to a thought of posses- 
sion. If we still keep the thought of need, it shows that 
we are not " believing that we have." By holding the 
thoug^ht of possession we become partakers of all that is 
His, for He is ours; our Father, our God, our Good, 
and nothing else is present to be ours. Sowing such 
thoughts we shall reap the reality in our experience, for 
" as a man soweth, so shall he also reap." If we sow 
thoughts of omnipotent Good, we shall reap a very har- 
vest of good things. The sowing of spiritual thought 



THE POWER OF THOUGHT. 63 

is the prayer; the reaping is the answer. If we sow a 
fear, we cannot reap a joy. A sense of possession is 
spiritual ascendency, and spiritual ascendency breaks 
every bond that hinders progress. 



64 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 



CHAPTER X. 
IMPORTUNITY. 

For many years the parable related by Jesus to illus- 
trate and encourage importunity in prayer was a puzzle 
to me. It seemed inconsistent with the teachings con- 
cerning the fullness of God's love, and His desire to 
bless His children. But the law of spiritual knowing 
makes it clear, as it does all other spiritual problems. 
God's love is, indeed, perfect, and His gifts are to be had 
for the asking. " Before they call I will answer, and 
while they are yet speaking I will 'hear." But we are 
so under the dominion of material sense, and so far from 
a true realization of the spiritual, that we sometimes 
need to ask long and often before we are in a condition 
to receive the gift we ask for, or even to perceive that it 
is within our reach. " Ye ask and receive not, because 
ye ask amiss." We think our motives are right, and 
perhaps they are, as a whole, yet they are so alloyed and 
corrupted by our carnal, material selfhood that we are 
not in a condition to receive the blessing we desire, or 
to be truly benefitted by it if we had it. 

God is obliged to speak to us as He did to the 
Children of Israel, to whom He said at the close of their 
pilgrimage, " Thou shalt remember all the way which 
the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the 
wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know 



IMPORTUNITY. 65 

what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His 
commandments or no." 

Take the question of poverty. It is not possible that 
our Heavenly Father wants us to be poor. It is utterly 
contrary to His nature. Poverty may, indeed, be a 
blessing to us because it forces us to turn to Him. But 
here is the point at which we are likely to stumble. We 
think we are turning to God when we are only turning 
away from poverty. We want abundance, but we do 
not yet want God. If we did, we could have Him, and 
have abundance also. The promise is sure. 

" If thou return unto the Almighty, thou shalt be 
built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy taber- 
nacles. 

" Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold 
of Ophir as the stones of the brook. 

" Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou 
shalt have plenty of silver. 

" For then shalt thou have thy delight in the 
Almiglity, and shalt lift up thy face unto God. 

" Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him and he shall 
hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows. 

" Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be estab- 
lished unto thee, and the light shall shine upon thy 
ways." Job 22 : 23-28. 

Here is surely a mine of golden promises; riches, 
honor, prosperity, dominion. What is the key to this 
storehouse of mercies? If thou return unto the Almighty, 
and put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. It is a 
fair bargain, and God will never fail to keep His part 
of it. 



66 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

But there are many who earnestly desire and strive to 
turn to God, and to banish iniquity from their hearts and 
Hves, who yet come far short of " inheriting the prom- 
ises.'* Why is this? 

It can only come from lack of a true understanding. 
Jesus, the Divine Teacher and Guide, says that in order 
to receive the thing we ask for we must believe that we 
have it. But our false and belittling ideas of God make 
it almost impossible to do this. It is like learning a dif- 
ficult lesson. And here is where we need to practice im- 
portunity, not to make God more willing to bless us, but 
to prepare ourselves to receive the blessing. A sense of 
poverty shuts out God's riches as surely as a feeling of 
hatred shuts out His love. We must cultivate a sense 
of the abundance we have in God, and then it will begin 
to flow toward us and enrich us. 

And the same rule applies to all our necessities. The 
truest prayer is not begging God to bestow His gifts. 
He is willing to do this. He wants to do it. He is 
more anxious to bestow His mercies than we are to re- 
ceive them. It is the law of spiritual knowing that we 
are to claim the gifts of God as rights. When this idea 
was first suggested to me it seemed presumptuous and 
wrong. But I soon saw my mistake. We are children 
of a King. In which way do we most honor our Divine 
Sovereign, by failing to claim our rig'hts, and even 
doubting whether they belong to us, or by asserting our 
privilege as children of the royal family and demanding 
the rights which belong to our heirship? 

Let us rise to our high privilege as children of God. 



IMPORTUNITY, 67 

We need love. We need patience. We need health. 
We need money. Let us be bold and importunate in 
claiming these gifts, and asserting that nothing in the 
universe can keep them from us. 

But we must not forget that the necessity for impor- 
tunity grows out of our own unfaith and lack of under- 
standing, and not from any lack on God's part. Claim- 
ing His gifts is a way of trying to realize that they are 
already ours. 

The case of wrestling Jacob is an encouraging illus- 
tration of wise importunity. The words " I will not let 
thee go until thou bless me," seem too presumptuous 
for a child of earth. It was not the child of earth that 
spoke. It was not the selfish, carnal Jacob; it was the 
real child of God beneath the mortal consciousness, 
claiming his divine birthright. And how richly was his 
importunity rewarded? The wrestler became such a 
prevailer that his whole nature was changed, and a new 
name was given to him. Jacob the herdsman became 
Israel, a Prince. 

It is sometimes said of those whose lives are based on 
the Christian principle of spiritual knowing that while 
they deny the existence of a personal devil (which they 
must do if they believe that a good God is infinite and 
omnipresent), yet they have created a devil that they 
call " Evil " or " Error," or " Animal Magnetism," and 
this new devil seems to be as strong and as hard to man- 
age as the old one. 

It must be remembered that error, or wrong thinking 
has had possession of the human mind for untold ages. 



68 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

It has almost complete control of the consciousness and 
will-power of the race. Even religion has done much 
to confirm this condition, because it has so largely pre- 
sented the idea of an anthromorphic or man-like God. 
Evil, error, wrong thinking are not the expression of the 
divine in man, but of the carnal mind, envy, jealousy, 
hate, ambition, lust, covetousness, of all wrong and 
selfish propensities. It is the sum-total of ^accumulated 
falsity which now fills human consciousness, and may 
well be called a devil, as Jesus himself sometimes did, a 
liar and a murderer. It miust be treated as an aggres- 
sive force because it is active in the carnal mind, and is 
always roused by the presence of Truth. It is an unseen 
but ever present enemy. St. Paul says (Eph., 6 12, 13), 
" We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against 
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the 
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in 
high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole 
armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the 
evil day, and having done all to stand." His familiar de- 
scription of the spiritual armor need not be quoted in 
full. It closes with a strong plea for importunity. 
*' Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the 
Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance, and 
supplication for all saintsJ' 



LIFE AND HEALTH IN THE BIBLE. 69 



CHAPTER XI. 
LIFE AND HEALTH IN THE BIBLE. 

The Bible is often called a '' Book of Life," but the 
thought of life has been chiefly of the life beyond the 
grave. " As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." If we 
think of life only as a gift in a future world, we cannot 
enjoy the full inflowing here. But no such limitation 
belongs to the living Word. Right here and now is the 
privilege to be enjoyed. 

Jesus Christ said, " I am come that they might have 
life, and that they might have it more abundantly." 
What kind of life did he mean? He meant every form 
that life can assume for man's growth, development or 
happiness. He meant the life that expresses itself in art 
through Raphael, in music through Beethoven, in litera- 
ture through Shakespeare, in kindly deeds through 
Florence Nightingale; the life that enables us to visit 
the sick and the prisoners, to carry a cup of cold water 
to a thirsty disciple. 

The words " more abundantly " have a depth of mean- 
ing which cannot be grasped by a mere passing thought. 
The phrase is a door opening out into the realm of the 
Infinite. It belongs with the other statement of Jesus 
and with its limitless suggestiveness : " I have other 
things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now." 
It is a part of the revelation of our at-one-ment with 



70 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

God, and of our privilege of drawing upon His infinite 
resources. 

A growing belief that the word life includes bodily 
health is creating a new order of Christian teaching at 
the present day. Dr. Francis E. Clark, the founder of 
the Christian Endeavor movement, says, " I devoutly 
believe that too little has always been thought of the 
hygienic efifect of communion with God. I devoutly be- 
lieve that a multitude of physical diseases might be 
arrested and a multitude more healed by the constant, 
habitual practice of the presence of God." But if a 
" multitude of diseases," why not all? 

A flood of light is thrown upon the subject by observ- 
ing the fact that the words " health," '' wholeness " and 
" holiness " are all derived from the same primitive root. 
Health is wholeness of mind and body. This prin- 
ciple was the basis of all the healing work of the Great 
Physician. He observed no other lav/. His appeal was 
ever to the mind of the patient. His work embraced 
wholeness in its double sense. It apparently made no 
difference to him whether he said '* Thy faith hath 
healed thee " or " Thy sins be forgiven thee." Hudson 
says in his " Law of Physic Phenomena": " It is a mar- 
velous fact, and one which constitutes indubitable evi- 
dence of the truth of Jesus' history, that in no instance 
have they related a single act performed, or a word 
spoken by him that does not reveal his perfect knowl- 
edge of and compliance with the laws of mental thera- 
peutics as they are revealed in modern times through 
experiment and the process of inductive reasoning." 



LIFE AND HEALTH IN THE BIBLE. Ji 

If we live, move and have our being in God, where is 
the source of our weakness or sickness? Where can it 
be except in our own lack of realization of the truth that 
our life is a continual outcome from the Hfe of God? In 
Eph. 2 : 10 the statement " Ye are God's workmanship " 
may also be translated '' Ye are God's poem." God's 
standard for His children is health, harmony, beauty, 
perfection. The time will no doubt come when it will 
be regarded as dishonoring God for a Christian to be 
sick. 

By the Jewish law, the sick, the infirm, the maimed 
and crippled were excluded from the Temple. Hence 
those who were healed by Jesus or the disciples were 
always outside of the sacred edifice. 

Even in the Old Testament the healing of the body is 
a more prominent thoug'ht than we realize unless we 
make a special study of the subject. The fact has 
already been mentioned in a previous chapter that one of 
the names of God, " Jehovah Raphai," signifies " The 
Lord our Healer." And the truth expressed by the 
name is exempified in many ways. " I am the Lord that 
healeth thee." Ex. 15 : 26. "Who forgiveth all thine 
iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." Ps. 103 : 3. 
*' I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abund- 
ance of peace and truth." Jer. 33 : 6. " My son attend 
to my words ; incline thine ear unto my sayings ; for they 
are life unto those that find them, and health to all their 
flesh." Prov. 4 : 20, 22. " I will restore health unto 
thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds." Jer. 30 : 17. 

It is needless to multiply the quotations. No one 



'jB SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

doubts the power of God to heal. The question that is 
just now agitating the churches is with regard to Jesus' 
teaching on the subject. Did he instruct his followers 
as to the nature of the healing power for permanent 
exercise by them? For many centuries the Church 
has answered this question in the negative. But 
when we look for any scriptural ground for their 
adverse decision it cannot be found. The words 
of the Divine Healer were expHcit, and leave no 
margin for mental reservation of any kind. " Go ye 
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every crea- 
ture. And these signs shall follow them that believe: 
In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak 
with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if 
they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they 
shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." The 
words " them that believe " show clearly that the gifts 
were not to be limited to the disciples to whom the in- 
junction was immediately addressed. The extension of 
the privilege is still more emphatically expressed in 
John 14 : 12: "Verily, verily, I say unto you that He 
that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also; 
and greater works than these shall he do because I go 
unto the Father." Dr. Joseph Parker of London, puts 
the case conclusively, as follows: 

" If we believe 'the New Testament, we beheve that 
men were once * made whole ' without medicine or doc- 
tor. If this was a fact in New Testament times, why 
may it not become a fact in the present day. If it is a 
fact, it is the most beneficent fact in history, and being 



LIFE AND HEALTH IN THE BIBLE. /j 

such, it ought, if possible, to be recalled and re-estab- 
lished. To grasp the question wisely and thoroughly, 
we must go back to Christ's own time and think with 
him. Did Christ heal men? Yes, he did. Did 
Christ's Apostles heal men? Yes, they did. Was the 
healing mechanical, surgical, medicinal? No, it was not. 
Was the healing spiritual, sympathetic, mental? Yes, it 
was. Is Christ the same yesterday, to-day and forever? 
Yes, he is. Does Christ still work and reign? Yes, 
he does. That settles it. Suffering is the same, Christ 
is the same. Love is the same. Then what is wanting? 
Just what vv^as wanting in Christ's own day. Dost thou 
believe? Believest thou that I am able to do this thing? 
All things are possible to him that believeth. He could 
not do many mighty works there because of their unbe- 
lief. We must simply and heartily adopt the belief — 
most rational belief — 'that the things which are impos- 
sible with men are possible with God. That is all. The 
belief must not be mere assent; it must be the ruling 
and ever-active principle of the life. The curing of dis- 
ease is a paltry matter. To cure the disease of distrust 
of God is the supreme miracle." 

Christian pastors who oppose the principle of Mental 
Therapeutics surely cannot be aware that moral purity is 
the very foundation and cornerstone of the system. In 
the various medical systems drugs are often employed to 
heal the body of the debauchee that he may return to his 
sensual life again, but the metaphysical or spiritual 
healer gives no promise of cure except in turning from 
sin and following the ways of righteousness. 



74 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

In an essay entitled " The New Revival," which was 
read before the Illinois State Congregational Associa- 
tion by the Rev. Quincy L. Dowd, pastor of the Congre- 
gational Church of Winnetka, the speaker said: 

" A demand rises now that a gospel be given which 
offers a spiritual hygiene. God's tidings of gladness to- 
day, as at the first, come to sick, aiHng and harassed peo- 
ple. Are we not told to restore men and women, 
bringing them into health of mind? Much of what 
Christian Science stands for Christian pastors should 
attend to in the regular course c^f their work. It may 
come to pass that Seminaries for training ministers will 
have a professor of pathological and spiritual diagnosis. 
Healing of the mind is the pastor's forte. His message 
or advice misses the mark unless it brings some reviving 
to mortal flesh along with an awakening of the immortal 
spirit." 

A writer says in a religious paper: " When one takes 
a dose of medicine, he helps or harms only himself. But 
he who takes into his mind that which makes for the 
healing of his own soul, by the same potion ministers to 
all those who are about him. A merry heart gives light 
to a whole roomful of melancholy saints. Courage dif- 
fuses courage; hope creates hope; confidence generates 
confidence; and fidelity to a good cause, bravely main- 
tained by one human being, sets the pitch of fidelity for 
many others." 

Jehovah Raphai! " The Lord our Healer! " Can it 
be possible that we may accept this title in its full mean- 
ing, and that God, the infinite Creator, will heal all our 



LIFE AND HEALTH IN THE BIBLE. 75 

diseases, will visit the hospitals, the ' shut-ins,' the homes 
for the incurable, and will ' cure them, and reveal unto 
them the abundance of peace and truth?' Yes, this was 
the message of His Son to the world. " The Spirit of 
the Lord is upon me, because He hath appointed me to 
preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal 
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the cap- 
tives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at 
liberty them that are bruised." In God's kingdom there 
are no " incurables." We are *' shut in " only by the 
dark cloud of error that has been created by the sick and 
dying thoughts of humanity for ages. But the hour of 
emancipation has struck at last. The message of Truth 
to this generation is in the words of the prophet, " Arise, 
shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord 
has risen upon thee." 

Some who read these pages have been under the 
claim of disease for years. At first thought they can- 
not believe it possible that the gift of health and full 
vigorous life may be theirs once more. Let them re- 
member that this unfaith has been wrought into our 
natures by human theories, without one word in the 
Bible to sustain them. Dismiss these theories. Take 
the promises of the Bible as literally and absolutely true, 
and to be relied on. If we have a machine for which 
power is needed, and the electrician says, " You may 
trust the power-house. It has all the force you require, 
and a thousand times more," we believe him. So let us 
believe the words of scripture. Infinite Love is our 
power-house. " Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in 
the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." 



76 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE NEW FACT.OR IN RACE DEVELOPMENT. 

If Jesus Christ revealed the nature of God and the Prin- 
ciple of Eternal Truth, then the methods of extending His 
kingdom must be completely reversed. They have here- 
tofore been carried on in the masculine way. They must 
now be pursued in the feminine way. The masculine way 
is the way of the intellect. The feminine way is the way 
of the heart. In presenting the Principle of eternal life, 
the Divine Teacher made no more appeal to the brain 
than if the organ had no existence. His attention was 
wholly given to the moral and spiritual nature of man. 
For nineteen centuries the effort has been made to extend 
His kingdom by intellectual processes. It is not strange 
that this generation is confronted by the question "Is 
Christianity a failure ? " There is but one answer to be 
given : " It has never been tried." 

If Jesus taught a system of truth and life which repre- 
sents and appeals to the feminine element of our nature, 
why did he choose men as his disciples, and commission 
men to carry on his work? Because he knew that the 
race would have to pass through an intellectual stage be- 
fore it would be ready for the intuitional and spiritual 
stage. 

Even during his ministry the higher spiritual quality of 
woman was continually in evidence. His most sympathetic 



ri-IE NEW FACTOR, 77 

resting-place was in the home of Mary and Martha. 
Women were last at the cross and first at the tomb. After 
the resurrection the first commission was given to women : 
" Go and tell the disciples that he is risen from the dead." 

What was the history of society and of religion in the 
past when men had complete control? Bad men created 
a hell of selfishness and sensuality in this world, and good 
men invented a hell of eternal torment in the next world 
to punish them for it. Neither of these things would 
women have done even in the lowest stage of racial devel- 
opment. 

Women are the natural teachers of the race. A promi- 
nent educator says " it is easy enough to find scholars 
among the men, but for teachers, we must go to the 
women." The history of the kindergarten is an illustra- 
tion. The kindergarten was evolved by a man, for man is 
the natural creator and originator, but it was the women, 
and only the women who saw its spiritual meaning and 
recognized its educational value. For nearly a century 
women have applied the kindergarten principle and demon- 
strated its efficacy in child-training ,and only within a few 
years have the masculine educators realized its full value, 
and accepted it as the basis of all education, supplying prin- 
ciples that are to be carried through all the stages of 
growth and development. 

The new translation of Psalm 68 : 1 1 is an interesting 
illustration of the changed ideas concerning woman and 
her mission. In the Old Version it reads : " The Lord 
gave the word ; great was the company of those that pub- 
lished it." In the New Version it is given as follows: 



78 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

" The Lord giveth the word ; the women that pubHsh the 
tidings are a great host." The translators of King James's 
time could not believe that God intended to put woman 
forward so prominently, and therefore they calmly omitted 
the word. But woman's prominence in spiritual things 
belongs to her nature irrespective of human edicts or 
human opinions. 

Observe that the statement is not that women are to 
displace men in the spiritual leadership of the world, but 
that the woman's method must supplant the man's method. 
Woman's way is a way of loving deeds. Man's way is a 
way of dogmas and creeds. In the practical work, the two 
will combine, as God meant them to do. And this combi- 
nation will not be limited to so-called religious questions. 
In reality there are no questions but religious questions.* 
Women are as much needed in the halls of legislature as 
they are in the churches. The masculine law-maker votes 
millions of dollars for the care of criminals. The femi- 
nine law-maker would provide a system of kindergartens, 
and save the next generation from becoming criminals. 
To cover this branch of the subject by a single illustration : 
men build an expensive hospital at the foot of a precipice, 
amply supplied with surgeons, ambulances, and other 
equipments. Women would build a fence at the top of the 
precipice, and neither hospital, surgeon, nor ambulance 
would be needed. 



* I believe the industrial question is a religious question. I believe every- 
thing that has to do with the welfare of man in politics, in industry, is a religious 
question ; everything shows our relation to one another, and our relation to the 
Father of Life. We have committed the Golden Rule to memory ; now let us 
commit it to life. — Edwin Markham, 



"AS A LITTLE CHILD r r9 



CHAPTER XIII. 
" AS A LITTLE CHILD." 

The teaching of Jesus concerning childhood has had no 
place in the various systems of formulated theology. The 
essential distinction between his message and that of 
Buddha, Confucius, and all other founders of religions is 
right at this point. They told the children that they must 
become like their disciples. Jesus told his disciples that 
they must become like little children. " Verily, verily, I 
say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of 
God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein." 
This shows that there is no gateway from the realm of the 
material to the realm of the spiritual but the gateway of 
a childlike spirit and disposition. 

What are the characteristics of childhood which are es- 
sential to spiritual life ? 

1. The characteristic of unconsciousness, self-forget- 
fulness and absolute trust. T.he mature Christian is told 
that he must attain a state of complete surrender, but the 
little child is in that condition by nature. It is entirely free 
from the self-imposed limitations of adult thought. 

2. An open and unprejudiced mind. A modern writer 
speaks of the slow development of the race as resulting 
from " the infinite capacity of the human mind to resist the 
introduction of new ideas." But this conservatism does 
not result so much from a positive resistance as from the 



8o SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

fact that the adult mind is already occupied. It is like a 
citadel whose occupants repel indiscriminately all who ap- 
proach it, treating all alike as intruders and enemies. But 
the child's mind is free ; ready to receive impressions and 
giving an equal welcome to all. 

3. A capacity for other-worldliness. Little children 
live in a world of their own — a world of imagination. To 
the boy the hobby-horse is a real horse on which he makes 
real journeys to far-off cities and countries. To the girl 
the doll is a real child which is petted, scolded, sent to 
school, introduced into society. To both boy and girl the 
fairy world is a real world peopled with real beings. It 
has heretofore been supposed that the faith of childhood 
in a fairy world belongs only to that period of life, and 
should disappear in the process of a normal development. 
But in the light of this new spiritual dispensation, we see 
the error of this thought. Little children live in an unseen 
world, peopled with the creatures of their imagination, 
because man is spiritual and is created to live in an unseen 
world — the realm of spirit. The fairyland of the child's 
mind is intended to be replaced by the spiritual home of the 
adult mind. If we learn aright the lessons taught by our 
own childhood, we shall know that " the things which are 
not seen are eternal." 

4. The ability to live in the present, or by the moment. 
God is an Eternal Now, and there is where He wants us to 
live with Him. The child does this, and lives with God 
in a timeless region of realities. The adult creates for him- 
self a nondescript state of unreality which is a mixture of 
regrets for the past and dread of the future. The present 



''AS A LITTLE CHILD/' 8i 

moment is therefore to him a brooding nightmare, hatching 
out an endless series of imaginary evils. 

Children are naturally spiritual until we train them into 
our own materialistic ways of thinking. Hence the parents 
who are trying to live in the light of spiritual rather than 
intellectual truth find the little ones of their household 
beautifully responsive to their suggestions. T.he idea of 
an unseen guidance is native to their being. That the 
heavenly Father should answer prayer and fulfill His 
promises literally is to them a matter of course. The fol- 
lowing incident illustrates the point : 

The oldest son in a certain spiritually minded family 
had gone to the Spanish war. It was known that an im- 
portant battle was to occur on a certain date. Notwith- 
standing the faith of the family in spiritual things, their 
hearts were on that day filled with natural fears and fore- 
bodings which they could not refrain from expressing. In 
the midst of a conversation on the subject, the pet of the 
household, a boy of about five, slipped out of the room. 
Presently he returned and said with great confidence, 
" It's all right. I've been praying for Harry, and I know 
that he won't be shot." 

The event proved that he was correct. When the son 
returned home they felt some hesitation about speaking to 
him of the incident, as he was not usually interested in 
religious ideas. But they decided to do so and to their 
surprise he said, " Yes, I believe that. The bullets were 
flying thick around me that day when all at once I felt a 
consciousness that I was protected. All my fear passed 
away, and I went through the battle like one with a 



82 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

charmed life/* The little boy was then asked what he said 
when he prayed for Harry. He replied, " Oh, I went 
by myself and I just keep saying over and over, ' A thou- 
sand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right 
hand, but it shall not come nigh thee,' and by and by 
something told me that he wouldn't be hit." 

The prayer, " Now I lay me," that is so universally 
taught to the little children has one undesirable feature. 
It introduces the idea of death at the earliest period of the 
child's conscious thought, and fixes it in the mind by daily 
repetition : 

Now I lay me down to sleep; 

I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep, 

If I should die before I wake, 

I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take. 

Why may it not be changed from the thought of death to 
the thought of life, and of God's constant presence and 
protecting care ? I suggest the following form : 

Now I lay me down to sleep; 
I pray thee. Lord, my soul to keep; 
Thy love be with me through the night, 
And bless me with the morning light. 



GOD'S WORLD. 83 



CHAPTER XIV. 

GOD'S WORLD, BUT NOT. GOD'S KIND OF A 
WORLD. APPEARANCE VERSUS REALITY. 

It seems at first sight like a contradiction of terms to 
say that this is God's world but not God's kind of a world. 
The thought can be made clear by an illustration. 

Let us suppose an immense factory built by Edison to 
be run by a certain method of using electricity. The suc- 
cess of the establishment depends entirely upon this special 
method of employing the electric fluid. Let us suppose 
that the manager of the building is a secret enemy of 
Edison, who succeeds in reversing the electric currents, 
and thus throws all the machinery into confusion and pre- 
vents it from accomplishing the various results for which it 
is designed. Would it not be entirely correct to say of 
that establishment that it is Edison's factory, but not 
Edison's kind of a factory? He built it and he owns it, 
yet it in no sense represents his ideas. 

Just as truly can we say that while this is God's world 
it is not God's kind of a world. He made the world to be 
ruled and governed by Love. But an influence which is 
the exact opposite of Love has in some way gained posses- 
sion, and the result is unspeakable confusion and incalcu- 
lable injury. God Himself, the Love principle, is the 
motive-power in His world, and man has introduced the 
element of selfhood, which is the opposite of Love. 



84 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

Substituting the ways of selfhood for the ways of Love 
has so bhnded humanity to its own true interest that it has 
fallen into a state of illusion. The injunction of our 
Lord : " Judge not according to the appearance, but judge 
righteous judgment," has a far deeper meaning than is 
usually given to it. It has been supposed to refer chiefly 
to the indulgence of unjust or censorious judgments con- 
cerning our fellowmen. " Judge not according to the ap- 
pearance, but wait till you understand the case better, that 
your judgment may be just." Such has been a common 
idea of the text. But the meaning is infinitely deeper than 
this. It was spoken with reference to the healing of the 
impotent man on the Sabbath, for which the Pharisees con- 
demned Jesus, and wished Him to be put to death. " It is 
true that in doing this on the Sabbath I have broken one of 
your technical laws, but I have obeyed a higher law of God 
in healing one of His children. Judge not according to the 
appearance, but judge righteous judgment." 

The principle applies to our whole concept of life, and to 
all that belongs to our life. Righteous judgment means 
right judgment, and the only right judgment is that which 
is based upon the eternal truth, " The kingdom of God is 
within you." God's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, and 
since He is infinite, there can be no realm of realities but 
His inner spiritual kingdom. 

The appearance is that we are living in a material world 
which is subject to decay and death, and that we ourselves 
are material, and subject to decay and death. The reality is 
that we are spiritual beings, expressions and reflections of 
God, and that our true home is where Jesus declared it to 



GOD'S WORLD, 85 

be — in the '^ kingdom within." Our home is not there 
only prospectively in a world beyond the grave, but now, 
at this present moment. St. Paul said : " Our citizenship is 
in heaven." We are in heaven now in proportion as we 
obey its one law — the Law of Love. Nothing is real that 
is not an expression of that law, for nothing else is eternal. 
That which is perishable has not even a temporary reality. 
It has a temporary seeming — that is all. 

Take a ten-dollar gold piece as an illustration. To 
human sense it seems the very embodiment of reality, for 
it represents food, clothing — all the essentials of life and 
comfort in the world. Is it a reality? No. The one who 
holds it may have a heart full of sadness and bitterness. 
Merely owning the gold piece will not abate one jot or 
title of the sadness. It is true that the coin may be imme- 
diately transmuted into reality. It may be used to pay a 
debt which the law of Love requires us to pay. It may be 
spent for the relief of a needy family. It may purchase an 
article of value for ourselves. In such ways it may become 
a source of joy to its possessors — Jesus said: " Make to 
yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." 
This is another way of saying transmute the appearances 
of the external world into the realities of Love and Life. 
" Love not the world, neither the things that are in the 
world. If any man love the world, the Love of the Father 
is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the 
flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not 
of the Father, but is of the world ; and the world passeth 
away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of 
God abideth forever." John 2: 15-17. 



86 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

In the last declaration : " He that doeth the will of God 
abideth forever," we have again an occasion for remem- 
bering the injunction : " Judge not according to the ap- 
pearance." The external world appears so substantial, so 
strong, so enduring ; the prosperity of the wicked seems so 
enviable ; our own experiences are so trying. We can but 
echo Jacob's despairing cry : " All these things are 
against me." Right here is where we must hold firmly to 
the unseen realities, and by holding to them in our 
thought we will surely receive them. As sure as God is 
God the day will come when we can say with the prophet : 

" He will swallow up death in victory ; and the Lord 
God will wipe away tears from off all faces ; and the re- 
buke of His people will He take away from off all the 
earth : for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in 
that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, 
and He will save us : this is the Lord ; we have waited for 
Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." 
(Isaiah 25:8, 9.) 

" We have waited for Him." This is the keynote of 
victory. It is judging not according to appearance, but 
judging righteous judgment. 



GOD'S LAW VERSUS HUMAN LAWS. 87 



CHAPTER XV. 
GOD'S LAW VERSUS HUMAN LAWS. 

God governs the universe by a single law. Human 
society seeks to manage its discordant elements through 
a multiplicity of laws. Fourteen thousand one hundred 
and fifty-nine new laws were enacted in the United States 
in the year 1899, in addition to the numberless edicts that 
were already recorded on the statute books. 

But the restrictive enactments of legislation are as noth- 
ing in comparison with the fetters with which the human 
mind binds itself. The laws of fashion lead millions of 
people to sacrifice their comfort, yes, far more than com- 
fort, their peace of mind, their bodily health, and often life 
itself is laid upon the altar of this Moloch. 

Superstition also has innumerable forms of slavery 
even in this enlightened age. As this chapter Is being writ- 
ten the newspapers report the case of a man who was so 
fearful of seeing the new moon over his left shoulder that 
he walked backward off the piazza, injuring himself 
severely. Many of those who are in bondage to supersti- 
tious ideas deny the existence of the chains, and profess to 
treat the subject as a jest. Yet they show their subjection 
in countless ways. They do many things, and leave many 
other things undone that they would treat very differently 
if they were free from this bondage. 

In the matter of health, what a dismal code man has 



88 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

created for his own enslavement : " As fie thinketh in his 
heart, so is he." He has built a vast hospital, a gloomy 
prison, to which he condemns himself by a thousand laws. 
The law that dampness brings rheumatism, that sitting in 
a draft induces a cold, that eating certain kinds of food will 
cause dyspepsia, that breathing the air of a certain locality 
will produce malarial fever, that being in the company of 
one who has imprisoned himself with smallpox will re- 
sult in the same penalty — a volume would be needed to 
record the list of laws that mankind have created for their 
own affliction in the way of sickness. 

Then there is an endless schedule of what may be called 
personal laws — laws of temperament, laws of environment, 
laws of heredity (treated elsewhere in a separate chapter) 
— laws — but why continue the doleful catalogue ? Let us 
turn away from the dark picture of human slavery and 
contemplate the supernal glory of " the liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made us free." 

The simple declaration, " the Truth shall make you 
free," is an edict of emancipation from every self-created 
fetter of the human mind, because it opposes to all human 
laws the one divine law of Love. 

Love is the fulfilling of the law. Notice the word full- 
filling. It fills full. Not partly full, or half full, or nearly 
full, but full — absolutely full. And what is filled full by 
Love? All things; everything; the universe, including 
man. " All's law, but all's love." " The law of gravita- 
tion is one with justice," says Emerson. 

God, Love, is All. Love, God, is Law. There is no 
other law. " He that loveth another " {" the other," mar- 



GOD'S LAW VERSUS HUMAN LAWS. 8p 

ginal reading) " hath fulfilled the Law." He has filled it 
full. 

The word law has been used in many ways. St. Paul 
often employs it in a theological sense. But no one has 
ever had a clearer view than the great Apostle of the ab- 
soluteness of the law of Love. His declaration : " Xhe 
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
from the law of sin and death/' is of infinite application. 
It is cosmic in its comprehensiveness. 

The meaning of the word sin is " to miss the mark." 
The laws of the carnal or mortal mind miss the mark every 
time. God's one law of Love never fails. We fail con- 
stantly because we do not utilize the law. Love is life. 
It was because Jesus revealed the perfect Law of Love, 
that he said : " I am come that they may have life, and 
that they may have it more abundantly." Love and Life 
are interchangeable terms. Whoever surrenders himself 
to the law of Love holds the issues of life, and may speak 
with authority as Christ Jesus did. " Verily, I say unto 
you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven." Why? Because Love is the law of 
heaven, and whoever holds the key of Love holds the key 
of heaven. 

This truth indicates the correct interpretation of Jesus's 
saying: " If two of you shall agree on earth as touching 
anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of 
my Father which is in heaven, for where two or three 
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst 
of them." 



90 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

But when did two human beings ever agree under the 
laws of the carnal mind ? The judges in human courts are 
continually called upon to settle disputes between people 
who tried to agree and utterly failed to reach a common 
decision. Human laws are an element of disagreement, 
and not of agreement. But if we agree with God, if we 
put ourselves under His law of Love by surrendering our 
will to His, then, indeed, we may ask for anything, and it 
shall be given unto us. And if " two or three " are agreed 
in doing this, God is in the midst of them ;He is one with 
them. 

God's law of Love is the law of man's dominion. In 
this external realm of material illusions, man is the slave 
to his own innumerable laws. In the realm of spiritual 
realities he is master of God's law. Every evil that hu- 
manity suffers from is a reflection of a vital error in 
human thought. Lightning kills and destroys. When the 
horrible killing thought is eliminated from human con- 
sciousness, that experience will be known no more. Fero- 
cious beasts and venomous reptiles do not belong in God's 
universe. They are expressions of man's evil thoughts. 
The condition in the future when Love is to rule the uni- 
verse is thus described by the prophet Isaiah (ii 16-9) : 
" The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard 
shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion 
and the fatling together ; and a little child shall lead them. 
And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall 
lie down together ; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 
i\nd the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, 
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's 



GOD'S LAW VERSUS HUMAN LAWS. 91 

den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy moun- 
tain, but the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord as the waters cover the sea." 

Let it not be forgotten that the knowledge of the Lord 
(or " Jehovah/' as the Revised Version renders it) is a 
knowledge of Love — nothing more and nothing less — for 
God is Love, and " everyone that loveth is born of God 
and knoweth God." God's one simple Law of Love will 
eventually supersede all the complex laws of man's inven- 
tion. 



92 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 



CHAPTER XVI. 
" FEAR HATH TORMENT/' 

A recent writer says : " Fear is my devil." This is an 
effective way of stating a universal experience. In the 
final analysis it will be found that all fear comes from 
belief in separation from God. Belief in separation from 
God is the Evil One, or the one evil. But actual separation 
from God is impossible, because we live, move, and have 
our being in Him. This shows the groundlessness of fear, 
and the profound philosophy of the statement : " There 
is no fear in love, for perfect love casteth out fear." Per- 
fect love comes from ^n understanding that an omnipotent 
and omnipresent God, whose being is Love, can not allow 
the slightest harm to come to His children. " There shall 
no plague come nigh thy dwelling." This declaration 
seems to be contradicted by experience, for plagues in- 
numerable have entered the dwellings of good and devoted 
Christian people. 

But we must remember to whom this promise is ad- 
dressed. It is to the one " that dwelleth in the secret place 
of the Most High." The most timorous soul can realize 
that no plague can come nigh that dwelling. Evils come to 
us because we fear them. " The thing which I greatly 
feared has come upon me," says Job, and so it will be to the 
end of time. 

Yet, beneath all other causes, the one fundamental cause 



"FEAR HATH TORMENT." pj 

of fear is selfishness or self-consideration. Selfishness or 
selfness shuts out the consciouness of God, and thus opens 
an avenue for every fear. In reality there is no true life 
but the selfless life. An absolutely selfish fife is a Godless 
life. It is a state of illusion, of disappointment, of bitter- 
ness, of haunting fears, of seeking happiness, and never 
finding it. Joy, to such, is an ignis fatuus, ever floating 
before the vision, but never attained. 

It has become a maxim of society that happiness can 
not be secured by direct efifort; it only comes in uncon- 
scious moments when v^e are seeking other ends. Why 
is this? It is because seeking happiness is an act of self- 
hood; hence it destroys the very object it is striving to 
attain. 

But is not the desire for self-preservation a divine in- 
stinct? Yes, but it must seek its end by divine methods. 
The motto : " Look out for number one," embodies the 
highest v^isdom if we will but remember that God is Num- 
ber One in the eternal series to which man belongs. Look- 
ing out for Number One, in the light of this truth, will 
draw every blessing that man is fitted to enjoy, and will 
bring us into normal relations with all the other numbers. 
Looking out for number two, that is to say, for our own 
selfish selves, puts us out of joint with the entire universe. 
God is dismissed, and the devil of fear takes possession. 
Emerson says : '' One thing fear always teaches, that 
there is rottenness where he appears. He is a carrion 
crow, and though you see not well what he hovers for, 
there is death somewhere." 

The " carrion crow " is selfishness, whose fruit is death. 



P4 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

This Is a problem that all must work out for themselves. 
But with the golden key of Love, victory is sure. The 
joy of loving will displace the torment of fearing. 

I will not extend the discussion, but close with a few 
quotations. 

" Depression and low spirits, when yielded to, become a 
species of death." — Mathew Arnold. 

" The plague killed five thousand people. Fifty thou- 
sand died of fear." — Oriental Proverb. 

" Fear is a greater pain than pain itself. O, thou of lit- 
tle faith, what dost thou fear ? Let the world be turned up- 
side down, let it be in utter darkness, in smoke, in tumult, 
so long as God is with us." — St. Francis de Sales. 

The philosophy can be given in a nutshell : 

We are living in God's spiritual universe, where exactly 
the right thing invariably occurs at exactly the right mo- 
ment. Fear blinds us to this truth. 



OUR DIVINE HEREDITY, p3 



CHAPTER XVII. 
OUR DIVINE HEREDITY. 

One of the crudest forms of human slavery is the fear 
that is caused by the prevalent ideas concerning heredity. 
One family is in bondage to a supposed heredity of con- 
sumption, another of insanity, another of what is called the 
alcoholic habit, and so on through the whole sad catalogue 
of human infirmities. This fear seems to be justified by 
the second commandment of the Decalogue, where God is 
spoken of as " visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the 
children unto the third and four generation of them that 
hate Me." 

The fact has been lost sight of that this law was after- 
ward abrogated and annulled, as we read both in Jere- 
miah and Ezekiel. 

*' What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the 
land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour 
grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge ? As I live, 
saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more 
to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine ; 
as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is 
mine; the soul that sinneth, it shall die." — Ezekiel i8 12-4. 

Language could not be more explicit in stating and de- 
claring tHat heredity is no longer a law ; it is displaced by 
the understanding that our individuality is derived from 
God. 



p6 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

. Personal and individual responsibility is the basic prin- 
ciple of all biblical instruction. In one form or another it 
reflects the injunction of St. Paul : " Work out your own 
salvation with fear and trembling." The supplementary 
truth, " for it is God who worketh in you both to will and 
to do of His good pleasure," does not lessen the force of 
the teaching as to individual responsibility; it rather 
strengthens and confirms it. God worketh in you and not 
in your father or your grandfather. 

The teachings of Jesus not only imply the complete re- 
sponsibility of the individual and ignore the idea of 
heredity, but he destroyed its supposed law forever by 
saying : " Call no man your father upon the earth, for one 
is your Father, which is in heaven." This is a necessary 
corollary to his teaching that man is spiritual and not ma- 
terial. *' God, Spirit, is your Father. Your home is in the 
spiritual kingdom. Your life, health, strength, supply, 
your all comes from that kingdom. Give your whole 
thought to it. Expect nothing from earthly sources, not 
even from the nearest and dearest of earthly relationships." 

What a rich store of hope and courage is this truth to 
those who have supposed themselves to be under a pitiless 
law of heredity, and that the taint of some disease is in 
their blood. " God is my Father. He is my Healer. No 
power in the universe can keep His life from me if I will 
receive it. In fact, there is no other power in the universe, 
for He is all in all." This truth, if fully realized, will do 
more for the health than all the drugs and medications that 
human ingenuity can devise. 

Man's true heredity is clearly shown in John i : 12, 13 : 



OUR DIVINE HEREDITY. ^7 

" As many as received Him, to them gave He power to 
become the sons of God, even to them that beHeve on His 
name ; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God/' 

The true man, the spiritual man, is not born of flesh and 
blood — of material substance — nor of human doctrines and 
theories. He is born of God. The realization of his divine 
birthright comes through acknowledging Truth as Jesus 
taught, and obeying the law of self-denial thaf he 
showed to be the principle of the spiritual life. This denial 
of the material, or sense-life, restores man to his normal 
condition as a child of God, and " if children, then heirs ; 
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ to an inheritance 
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that passeth not away." 
" When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and 
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
brought to pass the saying that is written : Death is swal- 
lowed up in victory. '' 

One of the greatest evils of a belief in mortal heredity 
in place of the true immortal heredity is the encouragement 
it gives to self-deception. Human nature is ever seeking 
excuses for self- justification, and there are no excuses that 
appeal more plausibly to the mind than the idea that cer- 
tain sins and indulgences are the result of inherited ten- 
dencies, 



98 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

DID JESUS TEACH AN INDIVIDUAL GOSPEL 
OR A SOCIAL GOSPEL? 

That the churches are losing their hold upon the masses 
of the people is evident from many signs. Yet at the same 
time the Founder of Christianity is gaining a new vogue 
and popularity among them. " The people turn doubting 
from church altars to cheer in the streets the name of 
Jesus." This arises from their belief that he taught a 
social gospel of universal justice and universal brother- 
hood. 

That he did teach and demonstrate such a gospel is be- 
yond question. The Golden Rule is the corner-stone of his 
moral code, the spirit of the Rule permeates all his in- 
structions, and the all-inclusive word " our," which be- 
gins the form of prayer given to his disciples, places the 
law of Human Brotherhood upon eternal foundations by 
recognizing all men as children of the one Universal 
Father. 

It is usually assumed by those who regard Christianity 
as the foundation of a social gospel that the idea of an in- 
dividual gospel is opposed to that of a social gospel. One 
of the leaders of the socialistic movement who is pastor of 
a Christian church states his view as follows : 

" I regard the attempt to regenerate society by first of all 
trying to regenerate the individuals composing it as a 



DID JESUS TEACH? pp 

nightmare, as being opposed to the only sane philosophy 
I am acquainted with. I believe that this talk about ap- 
pealing to men's spiritual natures is misleading and vain — 
that it overlooks facts and principles that are fundamental, 
and that to any longer follow the method which it implies, 
is to part company with reason and chase a will-o'-the- 
wisp. I deny, and I can not too emphatically do it, that a 
man will find within himself the cause of his woes. It is 
time that hideous philosophy were abandoned. I believe 
in men. And I hold that to profess belief in God which 
does not involve the greatest possible belief in men is a 
contradiction in terms. I hold that the very deepest foun- 
dation-stone of anything worthy to be called religion is 
belief in men." 

This writer makes the very grave mistake of supposing 
the former idea of individualism to be the only standard 
of individualism. Having been brought up under the 
shadow of the " soul-saving " notion of salvation, he has 
concluded that that is the only conception of an individual 
gospel, and that a social or communistic gospel is the only 
alternative. He evidently is not aware that many have 
reacted against the selfishness of soul-saving who have not 
been led by this reaction to renounce the idea of individual- 
ism. It has led them to see that a true individualistic life 
is the only basis for a true socialistic life, and that no re- 
former has ever shown the principle so clearly as did Jesus, 
the Carpenter. 

The difficulty arises from that old foe to clear religious 
thinking, the forensic " plan of salvation " based upon the 
anthropomorphic conception of God. The idea of an In- 

LofC, 



100 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

finite Being can only be suggested to the finite mind by- 
analogies. 

The relation of individualism to socialism is made very 
clear by employing the analogue of mathematics, or the 
department of mathematics which is expressed by num- 
bers. God, the Supreme Origin of all things, is repre- 
sented by the infinite principle of mathematics ; humanity 
is represented by the different numbers. Each number is 
an individual expression of the principle of mathematics, 
and, as the expression of this principle, each number has 
a certain meaning, character, and value. Also, the rela- 
tion of each number to all the others depends upon, or 
grows out of, its relation to the universal principle. 

Now let us suppose the whole family of numbers as 
being in a state of insanity. They have lost all conscious- 
ness of their relation to their Father, the infinite principle of 
mathematics, and all proper sense of their own abstract 
value. They suppose that their value depends upon the 
objects with which they are associated. Five does not 
realize itself as 5 unless it is associated with some special 
object. And so with all the others. 

This would represent a condition of absolute material- 
ism. We can carry the illustration still further. We can 
imagine the numbers as making a great difference among 
themselves corresponding to the objects with which 
they are associated. Those connected with insignificant 
objects are thought meanly of. Those which count or ex- 
press more important things feel themselves superior to 
the others, while those that are associated with money or 
property claim and are accorded a very special importance. 



DID JESUS TEACH? loi 

and are permitted to rule all the others. Quarrels, wars, 
bloodshed become universal in the family of numbers. 

Now suppose a Saviour is sent from the Mathematical 
All-Father to heal these divisions and restore the quarrel- 
ing family to a state of sanity. Would not his first, and in 
an important sense, his only work, be to lead the numbers 
to realize their relation to the universal principle from 
which they derive their being? Could he do any real good 
by going about among the numbers and endeavoring to 
lead them to a better mutual understanding, except by 
showing their relation to the universal principle? Sup- 
pose, on the other hand, he could succeed in leading every 
number to an appreciation of its true meaning and value as 
an expression of the universal principle. Would not his 
mission be completely fulfilled ? Would not all mutual re- 
lations be immediately established and adjusted? 

Or, if the reform is gradual, and he is compelled to 
spend much time in working among the deluded children, 
what would be the nature of his work ? Would he spend 
his time in trying to heal breaches and patch up quarrels ? 
Of what avail would this process be while the lack of ad- 
justment between the numbers and their Mathematical 
Father still continued? If any of the family came asking 
him to do that kind of work, would he not say : " Who 
made me a judge or a divider over you ? Seek ye first the 
kingdom of your Father and all these things shall be added 
unto you." 

Does not this illustration convey its lesson without need 
of comment? The Christian Socialists are right. Jesus, 
the Master Reformer of the ages, did come to adjust 



102 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

human rights an^ to establish universal brotherhood ; to in- 
troduce the ideal condition " when business will be friend- 
ship, and government will be love ? " 

But he understood the eternal law of Life. He was too 
wise to substitute effects for causes. " Love your fellow- 
man," he said. " Deny yourself for him. Feed him 
when hungry. Clothe him when naked. Comfort him 
when afflicted." But not one word did he ever say to jus- 
tify the idea that human relations could be set right till 
divine relations are properly adjusted. As numbers can 
not add, subtract, multiply our divide correctly till they 
are properly related to the infinite principle that creates 
them, no more can man deal justly with his brother ex- 
cept in so far as he is in proper relations with the Infinite 
Father. Jesus said : " The first of all the commandments 
is Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God, and 
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
strength. " He then repeats the statement : " This is the 
first commandment." And adds, " the second is like, 
namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
There is none other commandment greater than these." 

It may be claimed that some who do not profess to love 
God — who do not even believe in His existence — are more 
righteous in their lives, and more just in their dealings 
with their fellow-men than others who acknowledge God 
and profess to love and obey Him. 

It is not a question of profession or even of recognition 
and acknowledgment. Anyone who believes in right- 
eousness and lives it, behoves in God, whether he knows it 



DID JESUS TEACH? 103 

or not. T.here can not be any goodness in the universe that 
does not come from Him. People who love goodness and 
practice righteousness have not rejected God; they have 
only rejected the false God of human conception. In pro- 
portion as they love goodness and righteousness they love 
God, although they may not realize it. Therefore, instead 
of being evidence^ against the rule that man must love God 
first and the fellow-man afterward, they are living wit- 
nesses in its favor. We may say to them as St. Paul did 
to the Athenians : " Whom therefore ye ignorantly wor- 
ship. Him declare we unto you." 

The rank injustice of industrial conditions ought to stir 
every heart with deepest indignation and pity. The fact 
that millions of our fellow-men have not the privilege of 
earning their daily bread, and that those who have this 
privilige are subject to innumerable limitations and dis- 
advantages by the evils of the existing social order — what 
right-minded child of the race can withhold his sympathy 
or fail to do all in his power to alleviate this condition — 
to right the grievous wrong. 

The Literary Digest of September 22, 1900, gives the 
following description of industrial conditions in Italy, 
translated from the Frankfurter Zeitung: 

" A perusal of the rules for the workingmen, which are 
posted in the leading factories, shows how unmercifully 
the workingmen and women are treated. Work in both 
winter and summer begins at six, and care is taken that 
no one dare be late even a second. T.ardiness, even to the 
slightest degree, is fined ten centesimi (two cents), and 
double this sum if it takes place on a Monday. On every 



104 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

repetition of such tardiness the fine is doubled. In the silk 
factories, during the season, the hours of labor are six- 
teen, namely, from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m., while the average pay 
is only half a lira (10 cents). 

" The least inattention is severely fined. It is utterly im- 
possible to sit at a weaver's bench for twelve consecutive 
hours without speaking a word; yet if detected in the act 
the culprit is fined. No time is given to the women 
workers for their duties at home, and if one of them re- 
mains at home a few hours for such a purpose, she is fined 
two lira (39 cents) — a large sum under the circumstances. 
Leaving one's chair without the best of reasons brings a 
fine of 50 centesimi (10 cents). Any break in the ma- 
chines must be paid for by the workman, although he 
may be entirely without fault." 

If it be alleged that it is unfair to borrow an illustration 
from the country where the industrial conditions are at 
the very worst, the answer is that the business creed which 
leads to those conditions is dominant in America, although 
not carried to such extreme results. The creed is : " Get 
all you can and give as little as possible." 

But the value of sympathy depends entirely upon the 
effectiveness of its expression. As a mere sentiment it is 
worthless. And taking the term " Christian Socialism " 
as indicating the best effort of men to release their fellow- 
men from all evil social conditions, who is the best Chris- 
tian Socialist, one who strikes the evil at its root, and seeks 
to introduce at the foundation a Principle that will reach 
the heart and change the nature and motives of both em- 
ployer and employed (because the Principle of Love ap- 



DID JESUS TEACH? 105 

plies equally to both), or one who gives his attention to 
external reforms; pruning and lopping off the diseased 
branches ? The social reformers are indeed doing a noble 
work in their efforts to secure justice in the industrial 
world. But they should remember the words of the Mas- 
ter Reformer : " these ought ye to have done, and not to 
leave the other undone." 

Love is a universal solvent. It is the only cure for the 
ills of humanity. Not human love as a sentiment, but 
Divine Love as an active force, expressed in righteousness, 
justice, unfailing consideration for " the other one." And 
it must be remembered that every spiritual reality has its 
counterfeit in the unreal realm of human selfishness. 
Every activity of life is the expression of love, either 
human or divine. A great city like New York or London, 
is only what love has made it. Love of home, love of 
friends, love of action, love of success, love of applause, 
love of art — man expresses himself through his various 
forms of love, and if the fruits of love should be elimi- 
nated, there would be no New York or London left. Now 
let all that is human in this love be changed to the divine, 
and heaven would be here. Joy and peace would reign 
in every heart. 

And this is exactly the figure that is employed by St. 
John in his revelation of the ideal future : 

" I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first 
heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there 
was no more sea (no more error or unrest). And I, John, 
saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God 
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her hus- 



io6 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

band. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, 
Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will 
dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God 
Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall 
be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall 
there be any more pain, for the former things are passed 
away." 

This is a picture of the future New York and Lon- 
don when they have been emancipated from selfishness and 
sin, and spiritualized by Love. The heavenly Jerusalem is 
a type of the earthly city. " Jerusalem, which is above is 
free, which is the mother of us all." 

And since it is a spiritual city we are building, it is an 
unspeakable comfort and encouragement to know that 
every act of kindness, justice, and unselfishness on our 
part is adding to its beauty. Even our loving thoughts 
are helping to build the New Jerusalem, for thoughts are 
things, and " the things which are not seen are eternal." 



THE HEAVENLY LANGUAGE. 107 



CHAPTER XIX. 
THE HEAVENLY LANGUAGE. 

A correspondent, writing with reference to a treatise on 
a spiritual subject, says : " It is written in the heavenly 
language in which is written the ' new name,' which * no 
man can read save he to whom it is given.' " 

The idea of a " heavenly language " has lingered in 
my mind like a strain of sweetest music. T,he " new 
name " is Love, and the heavenly language is the language 
of Love. 

" The wise men ask what language did Christ speak ? 

They cavil, argue, search and little prove ; 
O sages, leave your Syriac and your Greek — 
Each heart contains the knowledge that you seek: 

Christ spoke the universal language, love." * 

Spiritual psychology is introducing a new language 
into the world, and it is a heavenly language. It is an ex- 
pression of the spiritual truth which Jesus taught concern- 
ing the unseen spiritual world as the world of realities. 
Turning the thought to that world we find there an infinite 
Heavenly Father whose very substance is Love, and this 
love is imparted to everyone who obeys its laws. But the 
material must be sacrificed to the spiritual. '' Ye can not 
serve God and mammon." All anxiety must be given up, 
and our lives must be committed to the unseen realm with 



* Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 



io8 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

the trust of a little child. Then " all things shall be added 
unto you " for the higher or spiritual consciousness con- 
trols the lower or material consciousness. Harmony within 
will express itself by harmony without. In proportion as 
we realize love, joy, and peace in our inner being, the dis- 
cords of the external life will disappear. God is Spirit and 
He is Love. Live with Him, rejoice in Him, surrender 
your will to His will, and Heaven will take possession of 
your being. But we must trust and rest, and live for the 
highest things. Only the pure in heart can see God, and 
only the trusting heart can find peace in Him. 

The phrase " heavenly language " is a useful addition to 
religious terminology. It is needed. People are coming 
into the new spiritual conception of life in so many ways 
and from so many different starting-points, that they are 
often unconscious of the change themselves, and also un- 
conscious of the new bond of sympathy with others. Now 
let them observe whether their friends begin to speak the 
heavenly language. If they express in any form the 
thought that God is all, that Spirit is all, that Love is all, 
then we may respond in like terms and find that we and 
they are in the " unity of the spirit and the bond of peace." 

The phrase affords a helpful suggestion to the clergy. 
Many of them are in large sympathy with the principles 
of spiritual knowing. But their sermons are not yet clearly 
expressed in the heavenly language. Or, perhaps, they 
preach a sermon in the language, and some of their hun- 
gry people go home delighted. But the next Sunday the 
sermon will be filled with the old scholastic terms, and the 
comfort of the sympathetic hearer is lost. The theological 



THE HEAVENLY LANGUAGE. lop 

seminaries will never be wholly right till they teach the 
heavenly language, and the gulf between the preachers and 
the masses will only disappear as that language is learned 
and employed. 

Yet it is not really a new language. Five thousand years 
ago, while the priests were ministering in the name of 
polytheism because the masses of the people were not pre- 
pared for anything higher, many of them secretly held to 
one God. The following statement was a part of the form 
for initiating the favored few into " the unutterable mys- 
teries " : '' God is the One, the All, the Father, the Source 
of Life, the Sustainer of Life." 

The Hebrew Scriptures are full of the heavenly lan- 
guage, but it has not had its full heavenly interpretation. 
Jesus of Nazareth makes it a part of his great commis- 
sion as recorded in Mark i6 : 17 : " In my name shall they 
cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues." The 
early church obeyed the commission literally, healing the 
sick, and speaking the heavenly language. When the 
power was lost through worldly ambitions and worldly 
methods, a few faithful ones still used the language, and it 
diffused some light even in the darkest ages. Now it is re- 
appearing in the fullness of its power, and blessed are they 
who understand and use it. 

We sometimes speak of dead languages, but the truly 
dead language is that which expresses a dead theology. 
The heavenly language is the dialect of Love ; the vernacu- 
lar of Eternal Life. 



no SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE ART OF LETTING GO. 

The art of arts, the hardest for human nature to learn, 
is the art of letting go. It is not so in the rest of the uni- 
verse, outside of human kind. Why is it that 

"the earth whirled amid the stars, 

Wakes not a nested bird or slumbering child ? ** 

It is because our planet has " let go " absolutely and 
perfectly, and surrendered itself to the care of God. God 
says to the circling stars : " Underneath are the everlast- 
ing arms." They believe His word, and yield themselves 
to His perfect care, and a harmonious Cosmos is the re- 
sult. If but a single atom in a single star failed to yield 
itself in absolute trust to all the laws that govern it, order 
would be changed to chaos. The universe would become a 
diverse, 

God says to man: " Underneath are the everlasting 
arms." Man stops to doubt and question, and thus de- 
stroys his own peace. Here are some wise and helpful 
words on the question of letting go : 

" When we look into faces around us we find traces of 
anxiety and care in all. Anxious thought has written its 
mark over most faces. 

" What are we anxious about ? Some fear haunts us. 
We seem afraid of so many things. Afraid of falling 



THE ART OF LETTING GO. iii 

into something that will hurt us, or somebody else. Sup- 
pose, now, that we just let ourselves fall. Rest awhile by 
saying : ' I have no concern about what happens. I am 
not anxious.' It will be well for us to try falling for a 
time. We have been on such a strain, trying to hold our- 
selves up, to keep from falling. Let us now yield, give up 
the strain, fall. What then? Where is there to fall but 
into God? 

" ' Underneath are the everlasting arms.' We have 
never rested upon them, because we have been trying to 
keep ourselves up. When we let go we shall feel these 
strong arms all about us. All threats of what may happen 
to us will be proved powerless when we give up resistance. 
Let come what will, for only God can come. 

" We may begin to destroy claims of fear and anxiety 
by saying often : ' I am not afraid, for there is nothing to 
be afraid of — ^God hath not given me a spirit of fear. 
Perfect love casteth out fear.* 

How can we carry out the " let go " gospel ? In other 
words, what shall we let go of ? 

I. Since God is Infinite Love, let go of the idea that sin, 
evil, hate, discord, sickness, etc., are realities in any such 
sense as their opposites are realities. They are realities 
only to the extent that we hold them in our thought as 
realities. Let go of the thought of evil, and hold the 
thought of goodness; of envy, and hold the thought of 
Love; of discord, and hold the thought of harmony; of 
sickness, and hold the thought of health, and so on through 
the entire catalogue. 



* Mrs. Fannie B. James. 



112 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

2. Let go of all that is earthly. Then we shall begin at 
once to rise. Material gravitation is downward, but spirit- 
ual gravitation is upward. Letting go is like cutting the 
ropes of the balloon and allowing it to rise into its native 
element. Remember that " it is the father's good pleasure 
to give us the kingdom." We do not have to beg and 
plead for it. Only let go of the things that belong to earth 
—the lower self — and we shall rise into the upper region 
of Love, Joy, and Peace. 

3. Give up worrying because others insist on traveling 
toward Heaven a different way from ours. " Some peo- 
ple collect a bag of prejudices and call it conscience." And 
they are just the people who judge others by their own 
little standard. It is well to imitate the Episcopalian 
brother who was asked whether a floating chapel in which 
he was interested was " High Church " or '' Low Church." 
" It depends on the tide," was his reply. 

4. Give up the personal will. Ah ! here is the supreme 
test. Many readers of these lines can conscientiously and 
truthfully says : '' I have been trying all my life to do 
this, and I have not succeeded." Do not be discouraged. 
A new hope is coming into the world through the law of 
spiritual knowing. Our efforts in the past have been on 
the platform of blind belief. Now we are seeing that we 
are called (as Christians have been for nineteen centuries, 
but few have understood it) to the higher privilege of 
knowing. But we can not change the habit of thought 
in a moment. It is like a new lesson to be learned, and it 
can not be mastered without constant effort. Practice 
daily the effort of holding the thought : I am a child of 



THE ART OF LETTING GO. 113 

God, made in His image and likeness. I have no will but 
His. I am spiritual and I do not live in or for the ma- 
terial. I do not yield to error. The greatest error is to 
doubt God. I can and do deny error and selfishness. I 
can and do rest in the Lord. Not my will, but thine, 
O Lord, is done. 

A layman, a successful man of affairs, has stated the 
truth clearly and strongly, as follows: 

" Christ's prayer, ' Not my will, but thine be done,' ex- 
cludes all sense of personality or self-gratification. Did 
you ever think that all the poverty, want, in fact, every 
form of evil, with its inevitable results, sickness, sorrow, 
and death comes from that little word mine? Well, it 
does, every bit of it. And when we learn to substitute 
the word ' God's ' for ' mine,' all sickness, sorrow, and 
friction of every kind will gradually drop out of our lives, 
and Heaven — harmony — will be a veritable reality. Make 
it a settled fact in your life that your will is to be in com- 
plete subjection to the divine will in every word, thought, 
and act. This means m.uch, but it is the ' only true way,' 
and your reward will well repay the effort. You will be 
a constant surprise to everyone, and a greater surprise to 
yourself. Are you weak? You will become strong. Are 
you sick? You will become well. Are you poor? You 
will become rich — rich in every sense of the word, for then 
you will begin to manifest the kingdom of heaven which 
is ' within you.' Then ' God will dwell in you both to will 
and to do of His good pleasure/ " ''' 



* Lincoln G. Backus, 



114 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
CONTAGIOUS GREETINGS. 

A vast amount of harm is done by the unfortunate form 
of greeting which prevails among all English-speaking 
people. " How do you do ? " we say, with the kindest 
possible intention. But the question has a most undesir- 
able and mischievous effect. It brings before the mind 
the one subject which ought to be kept in the background 
■ — ^the ills of the flesh. In accordance with some element 
of perversity in human nature the question does not call 
up a vision of health, but rather brings out the latent 
thoughts of infirmity and disease. 

The evil is not a slight one. Now that the governing 
effect of mental action is beginning to be realized, it be- 
comes an important duty to change or modify a custom 
which develops a destructive force whenever two friends 
chance to meet. Thoughts are things. Our sympathetic 
greetings are actually contagious. We throw sickly ideas 
like pestilent pellets at one another's heads. 

There is a form of greeting that is natural and un- 
forced, and that produces an effect which is as favorable 
in the right direction as the other is in the wrong. " Good- 
morning ! How is your thought to-day ? " The essential 
difference between the trend of materialism and the trend 
of spirituality is well illustrated by the opposite effect of 
the two questions. " How is your health ? " is an appeal 



CONTAGIOUS GREETINGS. 115 

to the material side, and brings up thoughts of sickness. 
Even if we feel well when the question is asked, the ten- 
dency is to remember that we had a headache yesterday 
or are dreading the dyspepsia to-morrow. " How is your 
thought ? " emphasizes the optimistic and not the pessi- 
mistic side. It arouses an immediate desire to improve 
the thought, and to press more resolutely in the direction 
of Truth and Life. 
Let us banish all contagious greetings. 



Ii6 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
THE NEW EVANGELISM. 

Evangelism is defined as " the preaching or promulga- 
tion of the gospel." Gospel means " good news " or 
" glad tidings." But what has been called the gospel in 
the past has been partly good news and partly bad news. 
The good news was the teaching that God is Love, and 
that Jesus Christ came to reveal His love, and to lead men 
to know the Heavenly Father. The bad news (proclaimed 
by the same " evangelists " who proclaimed the good 
news) was that God is also a relentless Monarch, who 
would not forgive His rebellious subjects (as they were 
called) until His son died as a punishment for their sins, 
and until they believed this teaching and accepted the 
death of Jesus Christ as an expiatory sacrifice made in 
their behalf. The bad news also included the idea of a 
hell of eternal punishment, where a large share of the 
human race were destined or (as many taught) pre- 
destined to go. 

Churches and institutions which have been accus- 
tomed to do evangelistic work are now anxiously consid- 
ering what form of appeal can be made in the light of the 
New Dispensation — ^the Dispensation of Love. The ap- 
peal to fear has lost its power. 

Can there be any doubt on this question? Can any 
power equal the power of Love and Truth? Love is 



THE NEW EVANGELISM. 117 

infinite. Truth is omnipotent. They are really one, for 
Truth is Love demonstrated, and the combination is ir- 
resistible. " Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth 
shall make you free." 

The present revival of New Testament teaching, freed 
from the human traditions which have gathered around it 
during the intervening centuries, changes the gospel of 
good and bad news to a gospel of good news only. How 
may we know that this is a pure gospel? It is a pure 
gospel because it is universal. It applies equally to the 
learned and the unlearned ; to the very poor and the very 
rich; to the hopeful optimist and the despairing pessi- 
mist. It appeals to the simplest mind, yet satisfies the 
wisest philosopher. It holds the terrors of the law equally 
over those who are drunk with alcohol, and those who are 
drunk with spiritual pride, announcing the one universal 
and inexorable law for all : " Be not deceived. God is 
not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap." 

The New Evangelism announces the message that God 
is Love, and only Love. Some earnest but conservative 
Christians are fearful that the presentation of this truth 
will give the sinner a license in self-indulgence. It can 
not do so, if the case is properly presented. Sin is in- 
sanity. Is there anything more awful than insanity — 
the delusion and darkness of a diseased mind? Show 
the sinner that he is under the terrible law " to whom ye 
yield yourselves servants to obey, his slaves ye are to 
whom ye obey." This is the true rendering of the text. 
Show him that he must remain a slave till he renounces 



Ii8 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

his sin, and that his taskmaster will become more relent- 
less and more cruel the longer he remains under his 
power. Then show him that he can break the shackles 
and escape from the bondage at once if he will accept 
the law of emancipation : " I can do all things through 
Christ, who strengtheneth me." " As far as the east is 
from the west, so far hath he removed our transgres- 
sions from us." This separation is simply a reversal of 
one's course. 

Spiritual knowing shows that this declaration applies 
not only to sin, but also to the consequences of sin, and 
to the weakness, disease, and misery it entails upon its 
victims. God not only " forgiveth all our iniquities," but 
He " healeth all our diseases." Evil habits, appetites, and 
passions are overcome. The children of wretchedness 
and despair " come to themselves." They "arise and go 
to the Father." There they find that He has always been 
waiting for them, ready at any moment to go out and 
meet them, to welcome them, to take them into His home 
and give them an abundance of joy and peace forever- 
more. 



OBEDIENCE, 119 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

OBEDIENCE, THE CHIEF OF CHRISTIAN 
GRACES. 

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by 
the things which he suffered ; and being made perfect, he 
became the author of salvation unto all that obey him. 
Heb. 5 : 8, 9. 

Obedience is the chief of Christian graces, because it 
includes all the others. It includes Love, for the 
obedience of fear is not obedience in the true sense of the 
word. It includes humility, for an obedient disposition 
is the fruit of self-forgetfulness and self-surrender. And 
so on through the list of Christian qualities. 

Like all other religious questions, that of obedience 
must now be considered or reconsidered in the light of 
true science or spiritual knowing. The idea of obedience 
to a person must give place to the idea of obedience to a 
principle. This is the message of the new dispensation 
to the children of the old dispensation, and it disturbs us 
not a little. Human nature, especially in its undeveloped 
stages, always clings to the concrete rather than the ab- 
stract. Personality is concrete; it appeals to the primi- 
tive consciousness. Principle is abstract, it must be 
sought for and studied ; its unseen laws must be grappled 
with, and in some degree comprehended. 

The higher must be cultivated, and it must eventually 



120 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

prevail in all the relations of life. The wise teacher who 
so trains his pupils that they will maintain the same good 
order in the schoolroom when he is absent as when he is 
present, is teaching them the lesson of obedience to prin- 
ciple instead of obedience to a person. This one illustra- 
tion is sufficient to suggest the application of the law in 
the realm of education. 

In applying it in the religious field we seem to be 
checked at the outset by the very text that has been 
chosen to introduce the discussion. Do we not read " he 
became the author of salvation unto all them that obey 
himf How could personality be more strongly em- 
phasized than it is in this declaration? 

Let this question be answered by asking a counter 
question. How does it happen that the so-called Chris- 
tian nations that have accepted the Bible as a revelation 
from God, and Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the 
Saviour of the world — how does it happen that while pro- 
fessing to follow him and to obey his teachings, they have 
so largely done the things he told them not to do, and left 
undone the things he told them to do ? It is because their 
attention has been occupied with personality rather than 
principle. He revealed God as an infinite Father whose 
nature and being is Love, and said " do not trouble your- 
selves about doctrines ; do the Father's will, obey the law 
of Love, and you will know the doctrine," and the world 
has been neglecting the law of Love and fighting over 
doctrines ever since. The outcome of this devotion to the 
personality of Jesus rather than to the principle he taught 
was well expressed by the late Prof. Roswell D. 



OBEDIENCE, 121 

Hitchcock : " After nineteen centuries of propagandism, 
Christianity is now compelled to apologize for Christen- 
dom." Also by Dean Milman : " Christianity has been 
tried for 1900 years. Perhaps it is now time to try the 
religion of Jesus." 

If we are to reconsider the law of obedience, we must 
give our thought to its widest range and its deepest sig- 
nificance. What are we as children of God called to 
obey? We are called to obey the unseen guidance of a 
Power which is Love, the infinite and absolute principle. 
We must surrender ourselves to it with what Emerson 
describes as " the negligency of trust that carries God 
with it." 

One cause of the difficulty we have in doing this arises 
from our imperfect concept of the word " infinite." We 
associate it with the idea of vastness, immensity, forget- 
ting that it includes the infinitely small as well as the in- 
finitely great. We see God in the heavenly constella- 
tions, but do not see Him in the trifles of our daily lives. 
This is where the thought of principle rather than per- 
sonality will help us. Is there any object so small that it 
is not governed by the law of gravitation? Neither is 
any experience so trifling that it does not come within 
the range of Infinite Love. Impatience with any ex- 
perience is disobedience to the unseen Power that is 
guiding us. We miss a train and are vexed beyond meas- 
ure by the occurrence. Infinite Love has not deserted us. 
This is just the time to turn our thought toward the un- 
seen, and realize that God is All in all. Nothing else is 
present or has power. Perhaps the trouble came from our 



122 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

own carelessness, but vexation only makes it worse. I 
know a bright and cheerful man who always says " Praise 
the Lord " whatever happens. Would he say it if he 
should fall and break his arm? I think he would. But 
we must remember that if we have the spirit of praise in 
our hearts every moment we shall be saved from accident. 
" No evil shall befall thee, neither shall any plague come 
nigh thy dwelling." Many accidents befall good people, 
but it is only because they have not believed in the law of 
Love, and surrendered their hearts and lives wholly to it. 
A God-loving pastor in a German village was repri- 
manded by a neighbor for not putting bars across the 
second-story window to keep his little child from falling 
out. He reminded her of the promise : " He shall give 
his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 
They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy 
foot against a stone." One day the child did fall out of 
the window. The pastor calmly told his daughter to go 
and pick it up. She did so, and found it unhurt. The 
next day his neighbor's child fell from a chair to the 
floor and broke its arm. 

To return to the question of personality and principle. 
It is a distinction which belongs to the law of spiritual 
knowing. Our thoughts are not yet fully adjusted to it. 
But is it not true that personality is the cause of most of 
our sorrow in the world? We have misunderstandings 
with our dearest friends. Friendship should be one of the 
greatest privileges of our lives, but is it not really the 
source of our most painful disappointments? Spiritual 
knowing changes the character and quality of our friend- 



OBEDIENCE. 123 

ships. Those who are striving to obey the Infinite Prin- 
ciple of Love have a bond of sympathy that nothing else 
can give. No Masonic Brotherhood or other human or- 
ganization can compare with it. Those who recognize 
spiritual life as the only life have in their friendship the 
element of eternity. 

Do friends vex us, and circumstances excite and annoy 
us ? This is an inevitable fruit of disobedience to the In- 
finite Principle of Love which contains, sustains, and 
maintains us. Failing to realize the perfection of this 
loving care, we must live in a state of perpetual unrest. 
Now change the thought from ignorant doubt to an intel- 
ligent understanding and reception of the fact that trust 
is obedience and anxiety is disobedience, and our lives 
will be transformed within and without. 

" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is 
stayed on thee : because he trusteth in thee." 

" He that believeth shall not make haste." 

Ingratitude is another form of disobedience. We have 
not thought of our lack of gratitude as a lack of obedience, 
but spiritual knowing shows it to be one of the worst 
manifestations of a disobedient spirit, bringing the great- 
est harm to ourselves. It may almost be said that in- 
gratitude is the cause of all human troubles. It impairs, 
and, if persisted in, ultimately destroys our conscious- 
ness of the Infinite Love that is guiding and supplying 
us, and, therefore, it shuts out the blessings that this 
Love seeks to impart. It is one of the evil fruits of self- 
consideration, and it can only be overcome by turning our 
thoughts resolutely away from that imperious ruler of 



124 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

our carnal mind, that pampered, exacting, merciless auto- 
crat, King Self, and fixing our attention upon God, the 
Eternal Goodness, with a desire to be used as a channel 
for conveying His blessings to our fellow-men. 

Realizing the scientific truth that our home is in Mind 
and not in matter will help us to overcome the grievous 
fault of ingratitude. In the realm of Mind there is noth- 
ing but good, for God is that Mind, which we, as indi- 
vidualized expressions of His Being are reflecting. 

The mainspring of obedience is love for the good. The 
more spontaneous the love, the nearer to absolute 
obedience we are. Self-consideration in any and every 
form is disobedience, and disobedience is slavery. 
" Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants 
to obey, his slaves ye are to whom ye obey, whether of 
sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." 

Mention should be made of one more fallacy that re- 
sults from dwelling upon the thought of personality 
rather than principle. In the oriental imagery which is 
employed in the first chapter of Genesis to describe the 
process of creation, God is represented as working six 
days and resting on the seventh. This description was 
adapted to the only conception of the Supreme Being 
that the race was then prepared to understand. To rid 
our minds of this false idea, we must realize that God, as 
Infinite Principle, could never cease working, and could 
never need to rest. Suppose the law of gravitation 
should take a day's vacation, what would become of the 
universe? Absurd as the idea is, it is no more so than 



OBEDIENCE. 125 

that which has hitherto been held concerning the cessa- 
tion of the Almighty's labors. 

This false notion has encouraged Christians in their 
erroneous thought of eternal rest in Heaven. What a 
miserable condition this would be if it were possible! 
What we gain by realizing our at-one-ment with God is 
not the privilege of taking an eternal vacation, but the 
privilege of drawing upon the original and inexhaustible 
Source of power, and thus enjoying the freshness of 
perennial youth. As Goethe says: 

" Rest is not quitting 
This busy career, 
Rest is the fitting 

Of life to its sphere." 

Jesus says : " My father worketh hitherto, and I 
work." That is, as God works " without haste, without 
rest," so are we to go through life, ever doing the 
Father's will, divinely active, yet ever allied to " the cen- 
tral stillness." It is true that there is an occasional hint 
of weakness and weariness in the New Testament de- 
scription of Christ Jesus's earthly career, for he was 
" touched with the feeling of all our infirmities." But 
he learned obedience through the things which he suf- 
fered," and he grew in realization and power as we 
grow, and left for us the divine injunction, " Follow 
me." To follow him is to do as he commanded, to obey 
the law of Love, and to seek first the kingdom of God ; 



126 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

that is, to give our time, thought, and affection to spirit- 
ual things and not to material things. 

What is the Heavenly Father's promise to those who 
have an obedient spirit? 

Listen to His words : 

" / will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which 
thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye" — Psalm 
32:8. 

" Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in 
the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have 
pre^pared. 

" And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall 
bless thy bread, and thy water, and I will take sickness 
away from the midst of thee" — Exodus 23 : 20y 25, 



A CATECHISM 
OF SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANITY. 



A LAYMAN'S CATECHISM OF SPIRITUAL 
CHRISTIANITY. 

"It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth 
nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are 
Spirit, and they are Hfe." 

(Note. — This catechism is derived from the teachings 
of the Bible interpreted by the logic of the heart. The 
logic of the intellect has filled the world with hate, 
bloodshed and misery for nineteen hundred years.) 

1. What is Spiritual Christianity? 

Spiritual Christianity is loving God and loving man. 

2. What is God? 

God is Infinite Spirit, Infinite Life, Infinite Love, In- 
finite Truth, expressed and reflected in all wisdom, good- 
ness, beauty and harmony. 

3. What is Spirit? 

Spirit is the substance of all that exists. Spirit is God 
in universal activity of expression. 

4. What is the Universe? 

The Universe is God expressed and reflected in the 
infinite Cosmos, which is represented fully in man, 
the image and likeness df God. 

5. Why is not this definition pantheistic? 

Because pantheism teaches that God is in the material 
universe, and there is no material universe. 

6. What is the miscalled material universe? 



ISO SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

The material universe is a false material sense or con- 
cept of the real spiritual universe. 

7. Who revealed this truth? 

Jesus the Christ revealed and demonstrated it by over- 
coming sin, sickness and death, and all material condi- 
tions. 

8. What is the proof that this doctrine is true? 

The fact that little children receive and understand it. 
This is the test that was given by Jesus. Little children 
cannot understand dogmatic theology. 

9. What is dogmatic theology? 

Dogmatic theology is a set of theories which have been 
substituted for the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

10. Why are so many people leaving the churches, or 
failing to unite with them? 

Because God is more clearly revealed out of the 
churches than in them. 

11. Why is this? 

Because the creeds of the churches are expressions of 
dogmatic theology and not of the living Christ. 

12. Why are not people who are dissatisfied with 
dogmatic theology drawn into the protesting or "liberal" 
churches which have rejected it? 

Because the people care no more for a dogmatism of 
protest than they do for a dogmatism of dogma. They 
demand the Realities of Life, Love and Truth as taught 
and manifested by Jesus the Christ. 

13. What is the receiving of those Realities into the 
individual consciousness and life? 



A CATECHISM. 131 

It is the Second Coming; the coming of the eternal 
Christ, the Spiritual Christ. 

14. What institutions are doing the most to hinder 
the coming of the eternal, spiritual Christ? 

The Theological Seminaries. 

15. Why is this true? 

Because they unfit their students for presenting the 
eternal, spiritual Christ. 

16. Why is this the case when they teach so much 
that is true? 

Because the anthropomorphic conception of God is 
still the foundation of their theological systems. 

17. Do they not teach the immanence of God? 
Some of them do, but their teaching is pantheistic be- 
cause they beheve the universe to be material. 

18. What is the most important thing for a young 
pastor to do? 

To correct the errors he learned at the Theological 
Seminaries. 

19. In what respect must he change his speech? 

He must substitute the heavenly language (" the new 
tongue ") for the language of scholastic thought. 

20. What is the heavenly language? 

The heavenly language is the language which ex- 
presses the Truth that God, Love, is omnipotent, omni- 
present, omniscient and omni-active Being; and that 
nothing but Love is present in the universe. 

21. Are there three Gods or one God? 

" Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God." 

22. Is there a Trinity in God? 



132 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

God is a Tri-unity of Love, Life and Truth, expressed 
or symbolized as the Father, the Son and the Holy 
Ghost. 

23. What is the Father? 

The Father is Infinite Love, which includes Life and 
Truth. 

24. What is the Son? 

The Son is Love manifested. 

25. What is the Holy Ghost? 
The Holy Ghost is Love unfolding. 

26. Is God to be thought of as Infinite Personality or 
Infinite Principle? 

God is to be thought of as both Infinite Personality 
and Infinite Principle. 

2y. Why is God to be thought of as Infinite Per- 
sonality? 

Because He is Infinite Love, and is therefore present 
to all. 

28. Why is God to be thought of as Infinite Prin- 
ciple? 

Because in the universe there is an infinity of ideas ex- 
pressing the presence of a Principle. 

29. Which should be the more prominent in our 
thoughts, the fact that God is Infinite Personality, or 
that He is Infinite Principle? 

The fact that He is Infinite Principle. 

30. Why is this, when our natural craving is for a 
personal Father? 

Because finite mind cannot comprehend Infinite Per- 
sonality as a whole. The effort to do so leads to the 
error of regarding God as a corporeal Being. Thinking 



A CATECHISM, 133 

of God as an infinite, all-pervading, ever-active Prin- 
ciple of Love leads to a constantly enlarging comprehen- 
sion of His Infinite Personality. Through obedience to 
the Principle we cannot fail to please God. 

31. What is evil? 

Evil is the suppositional absence of Good. 

32. Can Good be really absent? 

It cannot, for it is the omnipresent Principle of Love. 

33. What is the devil? 

The devil is the sum of all human beliefs about evil; 
a liar from the beginning, and a murderer, as Jesus said. 

34. Has the devil or evil any actual power? 

It has only the power that we concede to it or permit it 
to have. Resist the devil, or belief in evil, and it will flee 
from you. 

35. What is it to be a. Christian? 

To deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with 
God. 

36. Can the carnal mind do this? 
It cannot. 

37. In what respect must the carnal mind be 
changed? 

It must be born again. 

38. What is the nature of the new birth? 

It is "putting off the old man with his deeds," and 
"putting on the new man which is renewed in knowl- 
edge after the image of Him who created him." 

39. Can one be a Christian while violating the princi- 
ples of righteousness and justice? 

He can not. 



134 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

40. Did Jesus teach an individual gospel or a social 
gospel? 

He taught both. He showed that the regeneration of 
society is to be accomplished through the regeneration 
of the individual. 

41. What is sin? 

Sin is belief in a power apart from God. 

42. What are sins? 

Sins are the violations of the law of Love. 

43. When are sins forgiven? 

When they are renounced and discontinued. 

44. What is heaven? 
Heaven is Love. 

45. Where is heaven? 
Heaven is where love prevails. 

46. What is hell? 
Hell is fear. 

47. What is fear? 

Fear is yielding to belief in a power apart from God. 

48. Can fear be banished, and hell thus be conquered? 
It can. 

49. How? 

"There is no fear in love. Perfect love casteth out 
fear." 

50. What is the Bible? 

The Bible is a revelation of Life, Love and Truth to 
the human race. 

51. How has it been given to the race? 
Through inspired men in all ages. 



A CATECHISM. 135 

52. What is the purpose of the Bible? 

The purpose of the Bible is to reveal the nature of 
God, the nature of man, the relation of God to men and 
of men to one another. 

513. If God is Love, why does He sometimes appear 
in the Bible as a Being of wrath and vengeance? 

Because it was written by men, and reflects the imper- 
fect concepts of men. 

54. How can all wrath and vengeance be eliminated 
from the Bible? 

By interpreting it spiritually. 

55. What is the key to the spiritual sense of the 
Scriptures? 

The law of Mind. 

56. What is the law of Mind? 

" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
" As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." 

57. Who or what are the enemies against which our 
wrath may be kindled? 

Evil thoughts. 

58. If evil is not a positive force, how are we to think 
of the contrast which we have heretofore called good 
and evil? 

It is the contrast between Truth and error. 

59. What is Truth? 

Truth is right thinking demonstrated. 

60. What is error? 
Error is wrong thinking. 

61. What expresses the sum of human error? 
Adam, the carnal or mortal mind. 

62. What expresses the sum of Truth? 



136 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

Christ the spiritual man. 

63. How is the human race to be regenerated? 

" As in Adam (error) all die, even so in Christ (Truth) 
shall all be made alive." 

64. Who and what was Jesus Christ? 

He was Jesus of Nazareth, human as the son of Mary, 
and divine as the Son of God. 

65. In what respect was he the son of man? 
In that he partook fully of the human nature, 

66. In what respect was he the Son of God? 

In that he contained and expressed the eternal Christ- 
idea. 

67. What was the nature of his sacrifice? 

It was the sacrifice or denial of sense for Spirit, of self, 
to reconcile man to God. 

68. What is meant by the blood of Christ? 

By the blood of Christ is meant the life, of which 
blood is the type. 

69. What was the nature of Christ Jesus' atonement? 
He revealed man's unity or at-one-ment with God. 

70. What was His ascension? 

It was his disappearance from human consciousness; 
His ascension from the realm of the material to the 
realm of the spiritual. 

71. In what respect are we to imitate and follow 
Him? 

In all respects. 

72. Did He say that we are to heal as He did? 
He did. 



A CATECHISM. 137 

73. Did He say that our power could equal His? 

He did, and more than this, for He said *'and greater 
works than these shall ye do.'^ 

74. What was the condition? 

That we should practice love and exercise faith. 

75. How should the word faith now be used? 

It should include the idea of understanding, or realiz- 
ing the allness of God or Good. 

76. Why is not healing instantaneous by the Christ- 
method of realizing the allness of God? 

It is sometimes instantaneous. 

yy. Why is it not always so? 

Because human consciousness lacks childlike and re- 
ceptive thought, and believes in the necessity of sickness 
and death. 

78. What is saving faith in Jesus Christ? 

Saving faith in Jesus Christ is so realizing the truth 
He taught and the spirit He manifested that we are led 
to keep His commandments. 

79. What are His commandments? 
Deny self, love God, love man. 

80. What is it to deny self? 
The 91st Psalm. 

It is to deny the material consciousness, the carnal or 
mortal mind, which is enmity against God. 

81. Did Jesus Christ organize a Church? 
He did not. 

^2. What did he found? 

He founded a spiritual kingdom to be ruled by love. 



iS8 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

83. What is God's standard for the human race, His 
children? 

His standard is perfection. " Be ye perfect even as 
your Father in heaven is perfect." 

84. Do sickness, suffering, poverty, death belong to 
God's kingdom? 

They do not. 

85. Why are they here? 

Because of human belief in a power apart from God. 

86. How may they be eliminated? 

By faith in God based upon the understanding and 
realization of His infinite Love. 

87. What are miracles? 

What are called miracles or marvels are the effects or 
results of laws not yet understood. 

88. Are miracles violations of the cosmic order? 
They are not. 

89. Who can work miracles as Jesus did? 
All who realize God's love and power as he did. 

90. How can this realization be attained? 
By leading a selfless life, as Jesus did. 

91. What is selfishness? 
Selfishness is suicide. 

92. Why is it suicide? 

Because it shuts out the consciousness of God, and of 
the spiritual universe which is the realm of Hfe and causa- 
tion. 

93. Who are the sons of God? 
All men are the sons of God. 



A CATECHISM. 139 

94. Can any man be lost? 
No. 

95. Why not? 

Because man can have no existence apart from God. 

96. What can man lose? 

He can lose the belief of his sonship. 

97. How must he be saved? 

By regaining the belieif of his sonship, and living in 
accordance with that belief. 

98. What is psychology? 

Psychology is the science of Soul or Mind. 

99. What is the error of the current systems of 
psychology. 

In treating of individualsouls as separated from God? 

100. Are there not different souls? 
There cannot be, if God is infinite. 
loi. What, then, does man possess? 

He possesses consciousness and individuality, emanat- 
ing from the one Soul or Mind. He expresses and re- 
flects God. 

102. In what respect can man grow? 
He can unfold a higher consciousness. 

103. Will this tend to his final absorption in the 
Supreme Soul or Mind, or to the state which is some- 
times called Nirvana? 

Just the contrary. 

104. Why is this? 

Because his increasing consciousness of God and his 
enlarging capacity for understanding Him develop a 
higher and stronger individuality. 



140 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

105. Why will he not then finally be equal with God? 
Because his consciousness is a reflection of God. 

106. What is the basis of the true spiritual psychol- 
ogy. 

Spiritual psychology is based upon the allness of God 
as expressed in the following propositions: 

There is hut one fact in the universe. 

That fact is God. 

It is a spiritual fact, for God is Spirit. 

It is an ethical fact, for God is Love, Truth, Wisdom, 
Righteousness, the Supreme Source of all Morality. 

It is an aesthetic fact, for God is Form, Order, Beauty, 
Sublimity, Harmony, the Supreme Source of all Art. 

It is a scientiiic fact, for God is omnipotent, omniscient 
and omnipresent Life, the Supreme Source of all Being and 
all Knowing. 

The universe is an outflowing from or expression of the 
Transcendent God — of Life, Truth, Love, Wisdom, Order, 
Beauty, Harmony. This expression in the universe is 
spiritual and not material, for Spirit could not create any- 
thing less than itself or opposite to itself. 

Man, made in the image and likeness of God, is also 
spiritual, and includes the universe. Hence, he is given 
dominion over all things in the universe. 

107. What is the working formula of spiritual 
psychology? 

The working formula of spiritual psychology may be 
presented in five postulates, as follows: 
I. God is the only cause. 



A CATECHISM. 141 

2. Spirit is the only substance. 

J. Love is the only force. 

4. Harmony, the reflection of Love, is the only law. 

5. Now is the only time. 

108. What effect does spiritual psychology have upon 
those who study it? 

It increases their intelligence, deepens their spiritual 
natures, develops their love and forbearance, and reveals 
their at-one-ment with God. 

109. What is the relation of spiritual psychology to 
the Bible? 

It eHminates the darkness, and shows it to be a book of 
pure sunshine. 

no. Which chapter of the Bible do the students of 
spiritual psychology adopt as being, in some sense, their 
Divine Charter? 

The 91st Psalm. In the light of spiritual psychology 
every statement of this psalm is seen to be literally and 
absolutely true. 



Note.— In the present struggle between materialism and 
spirituality, there is a movement which is having a rapidly- 
growing influence on the side of the latter. It is known as the 
Christian Science movement, and it grew out of and is repre- 
sented by a text-book entitled " Science and Health with key 
to the Scriptures," written by Mary Baker G. Eddy. As is the 
case with every protest against the prevalent ideas and the 
existing order of things, both the book and the movement are 
very much misunderstood. 

From the text-book of Christian Science has come the sug- 
gestion of the title " Spiritual Knowing," and the underlying 
principle of this science or " knowing " is expressed in the fol- 
lowing quotation from another volume, " Miscellaneous Writ- 
ings" by Mary Baker G. Eddy: (page 123.) , 



142 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 



" Divine Science has rolled away the stone from the 
sepulcher of our Lord; and there has arisen to our awakened 
thought the majestic atonement of Divine Love. The at-one- 
ment with Christ has appeared — not through vicarious suffer- 
ing whereby the just obtain a pardon for the unjust,— but 
through the eternal law of Justice; wherein sinners suffer for 
their own sins, repent, forsake sin, love God, and keep His 
commandments, thence to receive the reward of righteous- 
ness; salvation from sin, not through the death of a man, but 
through a Divine Life, which is our Redeemer. 

The last act of the tragedy on Calvary rent the veil of 
matter and unveiled Love's great legacy to mortals: Love 
forgiving its enemies. This grand act crowned and still crowns 
Christianity: it manumits mortals; it translates love; it gives 
to suffering, inspiration; to patience, experience; to experience 
hope; to hope, faith; to faith, understanding; and to under- 
standing. Love triumphant." 

"Christian Science demonstrates that none but the pure in 
heart can see God, as the Gospel teaches. In proportion to his 
purity and perfection is man in the proper order of celestial 
Being, and able to demonstrate Life through Christ, its 
spiritual idea, even as Jesus did."— Science and Health, page 



^43 



BENEDICTION OF DIVINE LOVE. 

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

Lo, I am with you always — in all ways — even unto the end 
of the world. 

In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; 
I have overcome the world. 

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and 
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to 
present you faultless before the presence of his glory with 
exceeding joy, to th»5 only wise God our Saviour, be glory and 
majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. 



144 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 



NINETY-FIRST PSALM. 



1. He that dwelleth In the secret place of the Most High 
shall abide under the sh".dow of the Almighty. 

2. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; 
my God; in him will I trust. 

3. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, 
and from the noisome pestilence. 

4. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his 
wings Shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and 
buckler 

5. Thou Shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for 
the arrow that flieth by day; 

6. Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for 
the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 

7. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy 
right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee, 

8. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the 
reward of the wicked. 

9. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, 
even the Most High, thy habitation 

10. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague 
come nigh thy dwelling. 

11. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep 
thee in all thy ways. 

12. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash 
thy foot against a stone. 

13. Thou Shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion 
and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. 

14. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I 
deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my 
name. 

15. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be 
with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. 

16. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my 
salvation. 



APPENDIX 

HOW THE BIBLE GREW 



HOW THE BIBLE GREW. 147 



HOW THE BIBLE GREW.* 

The Bible is a collection of many books. It contains his- 
tories, sermons, poems, prophecies, allegories, letters, 
embracing nearly every style and variety of literature. 
From the time of the first attempt at compilation till it 
assumed its present form is supposed to have been about 
a thousand years. 

When or how the earliest portions were written is en- 
tirely unknown. They were derived from very ancient 
sources which are called " the primitive ballads," " the 
primitive traditions," and '' the primitive laws." 

The first five books of the Bible are called the Penta- 
teuch, a word which means five. When and by whom they 
were compiled is unknown. T.hey have been called the 
books of Moses, but it is certain that he did not write all 
they contain, as they give an account of his own death. 
The book of Joshua is now believed to belong with the 
first five, and the six books are called the Hexateuch. 

As the Bible is a collection of many books, so are some 
of the books themselves now found to be compilations 
from various sources. The books of the Old Testament 
were not arranged in the same order at the time of Jesus 
that they are now. All these questions of external ar- 
rangement are of absolutely no importance as regards the 
spiritual value of the teaching. As the critics and scholars 
are not yet agreed among themselves as to the authorship 
and arrangement of some of the books, it is useless to puz- 
zle the reader with their various guesses. The one im- 

* This synopsis is partly derived from the volume by Prof. Walter A 
Adeney, M.A., of London, entitled "The Construction of the Bible," published 
by Thomas Whittaker, New York. 



148 SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

portant question for each one of us is with regard to the 
spirit in which we read the book. If we read it to find sup- 
port for a doctrinal system, it will do us but little good. 
If we read it to find Love, Truth, and Life, it will be a 
fountain that faileth not. The special method of inspira- 
tion is also a fruitless question. D. L. Moody said : '* X 
believe the Bible to be an inspired book because it inspires 
me.'' The wit and wisdom of the ages could not give a 
better reason than this. 

XHE NEW TESTAMENT. 

The first part of the New Testament to be written was 
the Epistle of St. James. St. James did not believe in his 
brother's mission till after the resurrection. He was then 
made president of the Christians at Jerusalem. His let- 
ter has not been as highly esteemed among the theologians 
as those of St. Paul, because it contains but little doc- 
trine. Luther called it *' an epistle of straw." But it is 
full of echoes and reminiscences of the teachings of Jesus, 
and contains instruction of the highest value for the de- 
velopment of Christian character. It is a source of much 
comfort and help to the spiritually minded. 

The next writings in order of appearance were the let- 
ters of St. Paul. They are grouped into four distinct 
periods. The first period gives the two Epistles to the 
T.hessalonians, written about the year 53. The Thessa- 
lonian church was composed mostly of working people — 
weavers, fishermen, and dock laborers. Hence, these let- 
ters do not deal much with doctrines or speculative ques- 
tions. The people had the idea that Christians were not 
to die, and when deaths occurred they were perplexed. 
They also expected Christ's early reappearance, and feared 
that their friends would miss the joy of the Lord's advent. 
St. Paul reassures them on that point. Some believers in 
the reappearing made their faith an excuse for idleness, 
and ceased working. St. Paul rebukes them for this, and 



HOW THE BIBLE GREW. 149 

gives much spiritual counsel, which is of value for all 
time. 

An interval of four or five years followed these epistles, 
during which St. Paul greatly extended his evangelistic 
work, and also began a controversy with some who tried 
to introduce Judaizing influences among the Christians. 
Four epistles belong to this group, all written in the year 
57-58. They are First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, 
and Romans, and are called " St. Paul's most vigorous and 
significant works." They set forth the Gospel that he 
believed he had received from God — ** the Gospel of free 
grace for every individual irrespective of nation, race, or 
privilege." The exposition in these epistles was called 
forth by the attacks of opponents who taught that the 
Gentiles must become Jews in order to come into the 
Christian Church; that they must be circumcised, and 
keep the law as Jews. This made Christianity only a 
branch of Judaism, and Christ a Jewish Messiah — not a 
Saviour of the world, but only a second Moses, a Judge 
and Ruler of the people. Paul opposed this teaching with 
the doctrine of salvation on the simple condition of faith. 
" He had to contend single-handed against a host of bigots, 
the twelve apostles giving him no material assistance; 
perhaps not wholly sympathizing with his daring innova- 
tions." Galatians and Romans are the epistles which set 
forth St. Paul's teaching on this question most clearly and 
forcibly. But the two are very different. The Galatians 
were his old converts in the cities of his first missionary 
journey — Antioch, Iconium, Derbe, and Lystra. These 
had been his most devoted disciples. But they had been 
much upset — " bewitched " — by the Judaizing teachers. 
They had taken up some Jewish practices, and were some- 
what estranged from their spiritual father, Paul — as if 
converts of an evangelical mission should fall into the 
hands of Jesuits and be led into Catholicism. The apostle 
was justly indignant, and wrote warmly. 



ifio SPIRITUAL KNOWING. 

But the author of the letter to the Romans writes in a 
more deliberate style, and tries to explain his own views 
rather than controvert the opinions of others. Yet the 
doctrine is the same — free grace on God's side, faith on the 
part of man. 

In writing to the Corinthians, while Paul treats some- 
what of the same doctrines, he also takes up the question of 
certain evils that have arisen in the church — party divi- 
sions, immorality, litigations, greediness, and even intoxi- 
cation at the love feasts among the rich, while the poor are 
neglected. The Christians were called saints, but the 
church at Corinth was surrounded by the vices of a most 
corrupt pagan civilization. The congregation did not ex- 
pect such a letter. They had written to St. Paul asking 
advice about certain questions of conscience — the ad- 
visability of marriage, the eating of food that had been 
offered to idols, etc. The apostle treats of the more im- 
portant subjects first, and then turns to their questions, 
and answers them with great consideration for their 
weaker consciences and narrower judgments. 

The second epistle is written a few months later than 
the first, and is less pressing. Also, the riot at Ephesus 
has occurred in the meantime, and St. Paul's work had 
been broken up. The Corinthians also have suffered. 
Hence, the second letter is one for troubled souls, touching 
the deepest things of experience, and pointing to the high- 
est consolations of Love. The apostle speaks of his own 
experience, his hardships, his escapes, his joy in suffering 
for Christ's sake. 

T.he third group of St. Paul's epistles dates from the 
period of his imprisonment in Rome. They were written 
a little after the year 62, and consist of Philippians, Ephe- 
sians, Colossians, and Philemon. The apostle's conflict is 
now over. Peace and joy reign in his heart. Yet he is a 
prisoner, about to appear before Nero, and doubtful as to 
the result of the trial. 



HOW THE BIBLE GREW. 151 

Christ is the center of each of these epistles. The letter 
to the Philippians reveals the joy and strength of personal 
union with Christ, that to the Ephesians the blessedness of 
the Church's connection with Christ, that to the Colossians 
the supremacy of Christ in all creation. The letter to 
PVilemon is a request for the pardon of an escaped slave — 
Onesimus. It is regarded as a model of a Christian letter 
in the tactful and loving consideration with which the re- 
quest is made. 

The fourth and last group consists of the letters to 
Timothy and Titus. They are called *' Pastoral Epistles," 
because they deal with the duties of the Christian minis- 
try. The authenticity of these three epistles has been 
questioned more than any other of St. Paul's writings. 

It is now regarded as certain that the Epistle to the He- 
brews was not written by St. Paul. The famous Professor 
Harnack, of the University of Berlin, has recently shown 
that there are strong reasons for believing that it was writ- 
ten by Priscilla, Aquila also having some part in it. Its 
purpose is to reassure the faith of those Jews who for 
their allegiance to Christianity had been expelled from 
the synagogue. The writer shows that the privileges they 
had lost were but the shadows of better things of which 
Christians already possess the reality. 

The epistles of St. Peter come a little later than St. 
Paul's. " The first is rich in the very juice and marrow 
of Christian truth." The authorship of the second has 
been more doubted than that of any other book of the New 
Testament. It produces most of the Epistle of Jude. 

The three epistles of St. John come last of all. They 
were written toward the close of the first century, and ex- 
press the latest and deepest convictions of the aged saint. 
Love, love, love, is the endless theme — love for God, and 
love for man as evidence that the love for God is genuine. 

The epistles were not put together at first. They were, 
as the word indicates, merely letters sent to difi^erent 



152 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

churches or to private individuals. The writers had no 
idea that they would ever be regarded as inspired, or be 
published for the whole world to read. " No doubt the 
authors would have been amazed if they had foreseen the 
minute study to which their fugitive writings were des- 
tined to be subjected by many minds in many ages. But 
God was using these writers not merely for the sake of 
the temporary purposes they had in view. Unknown to 
themselves their inspired words were fitted to serve in 
later days for the instruction in Christian Truth of na- 
tions concerning the very existence of which they could 
have had no conception." 

The four gospels were all written later than most of the 
epistles. But they are rightly placed first, as they record 
the events that preceded the epistles. Professor Adeney 
calls them " the four golden spires of the great Temple 
of Literature." Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called 
*' The Synoptic Gospels," because they all take a common 
view or survey of the subject. Mark was written first, and 
constituted the basis of the other two. Frequently the 
other two follow Mark word for word. Where they do not 
do this, they absorb so much that only two or three inci- 
dents in Mark are not found in one of the others. From 
Papias and Irenaeus, who lived in the middle and latter 
half of the second century, we learn that Mark was a 
disciple of Peter, and wrote down the contents of his 
master's preaching. Mark's gospel is a little shorter than 
the others, not by reason of abbreviations so much as omis- 
sions. He omits the account of the birth and infancy of 
Jesus. He does not record lengthy discourses. He gives 
only specimens of parables where others give several, and 
treats of the life of Jesus rather than His teachings. But 
his accounts are more in detail, and more richly colored. 

It is not known whether Matthew or Luke was written 
first, but it is thought that both were written about the 
time of the fall of Jerusalem. They both give much that 



HOW THE BIBLE GREW. 153 

is not found in Mark. Whence they derived it is not cer- 
tain. Matthew makes most frequent use of the Old Testa- 
ment, appeahng to prophecy, and pointing out its fulfill- 
ment in Jesus Christ. But its supreme value is in the full- 
ness of the report of his teachings. 

Luke says that he was led to write his book by the irre- 
sponsible treatises that were appearing, and that he wrote 
*' accurately from the first." His style is superior and at- 
tractive. As a physician he was probably better educated 
than the other evangelists. He was a native of Macedonia, 
and knew the Greek language. His quoting the Hebraistic 
hymns in the early part of his gospel is an indication of his 
accuracy. 

Luke's treatise is " a gospel of grace for all." It shows 
Christ Jesus especially as a friend of sinners. He alone 
gives the story of the outcast woman washing Jesus's feet 
with her tears, of Zachseus, of the Prodigal Son, and of 
the Good Samaritan. He also shows great sympathy for 
the poor. Luke usually gives the sayings of Jesus in con- 
nection with the occasions out of which they grew, while 
in Matthew they more often appear as parts of larger dis- 
courses. 

The book of " Acts " is a continuation of Luke's writ- 
ings — a second volume. It treats of two special subjects, 
first, a history of the early apostolic church, and, second, 
an account of Paul's journeys, some of which he shared. 
The narrative ends with Paul's imprisonment in Rome. 
It is to be observed that Luke always shows the Roman 
government and the characters of the centurions in as fa- 
vorable a light as possible. This was natural, as, until 
Nero's persecutions began, Rome had always been the 
protector of the Christians from the rage and jealousy of 
the Jews. 

St. John's gospel was considerably later than the other 
three — not appearing till toward the end of the first 
century. As a record of historical facts it differs in its 



154 SPIRITUAL KNOWING, 

style and treatment from the others. John is peculiarly 
precise in his accounts of events. He gives time and place, 
day, hour, and locality more in detail than the others, as 
when he speaks of '' Bethany beyond Jordan," etc. He 
does not give the parables as fully as the others, but he 
quotes the figurative names employed by Jesus, " the 
door," " the good Shepherd," " the bread of life." He 
does not report so much of the public teaching of Jesus as 
of His discussions with those who opposed Him, and the 
private instruction of individuals, such as Nicodemus, and 
the woman of Samaria, and the training of the twelve 
Apostles. 

But St. John's message is above all things a spiritual 
message. '' St. John, the spiritual evangelist, introduces 
us most intimately to the heart and soul of the life and 
teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. For this reason, the 
book will always be prized as the inner shrine of all 
Scripture. It is as the Christian's experience deepens 
that the exceeding preciousness of this book grows upon 
him, and he learns more and more to draw from it the 
sustenance of his better thoughts. 

" St. John's three epistles go with the gospel. Similar 
in style, of the same date, breathing the same spirit, they 
are like a threefold echo back from the heart of the apostle 
of the teachings of his Lord which he has recorded in his 
gospel." 

The Revelation of St. John has been the least under- 
stood of all the Bible literature until now, when the highest 
Christian thought sees in its symbolic phraseology a 
graphic picture of the great struggle between Truth and 
error in human consciousness, the final overcoming of 
error individually and collectively, and the ultimate reali- 
zation of the Kingdom of Heaven within, as Jesus fore- 
told. 

The first two verses of the last chapter reveal the 
apostle's clear understanding that there is no death, but 



HOW THE BIBLE GREW, 155 

only a pure river of Life of which there was no " other 
side," but the same Life is '* on either side." He saw a 
perpetual Life or Principle " proceeding out of the throne 
of God and of the Lamb." This was further symbolized 
by " the tree of Life, whose leaves are for the healing of 
the nations." 

And there shall he no more curse; hut the throne of 
God and of the Lamb shall he in it, and his servants shall 
serve Him: 

And they shall see His face, and His name shall he in 
their foreheads. 

And there shall he no night there; and they need no 
candle, neither the light of the sun; for the Lord God 
giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. 

Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they 
may have right to the tree of Life, and may enter in 
through the gates into the city. — Revelations 22 : j-5, i^. 



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